A tale of two entertainment companies—one thriving, one struggling
Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has been absolutely on fire recently as consumers stuck at home look for entertainment from their living rooms.
But Endeavor Group Holdings, the major Hollywood talent agency that owns a stake in Epic Games, is struggling as live events and cinemas go dark.
Now in a bid to raise cash to carry itself through the pandemic, Endeavor is selling a part of its stake in the video-game publisher that it considers noncore to its larger focus on entertainment, per Bloomberg. It will sell as part of Epic’s next round of fundraising that values the gamemaker above its last $15 billion valuation in 2018.
Will the sell off be an example of short-termism in the middle of coronavirus? Epic games appears to be thriving for sure—but game titles come and go, and Fortnite showed signs of slippage even before the pandemic hit.
The answer will depend on Epic’s ability to launch off of its coronavirus-fueled surge. Epic’s staying power may also lie in its gaming engine, Unreal, which relies less on the whims of gamers and more on developers building games on top of it. In December, a Twitter user asked if the company’s CEO considered Fortnite a game or platform. Chief executive Tim Sweeney responded: “Fortnite is a game. But please ask that question again in 12 months.”
Revamping the city: A spinoff of Alphabet’s cities-of-the-future arm, Sidewalk Labs, raised $400 million in Series A funding from the Google parent company and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, per my colleague Jeff John Roberts in a Fortune exclusive.
Led by Jonathan Winer and Brian Barlow, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partnership (SIP) has lofty goals to revamp America’s infrastructure—though not so lofty as to run afoul of privacy concerns in the same way Sidewalk Labs did. Sidewalk Labs envisioned a smart city that used sensors to determine where people moved and how they lived in Toronto. But citizens grew fearful over Google amassing their data—stunting the project.
SIP is focused on a less glamorous approach, instead identifying “infrastructure that towns already need.” For instance, the company plans to tackle America’s plastic waste pile by sorting it with robotic arms and artificial intelligence.
On that note: Cities are embracing tech more than ever. On Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tapped former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to head a commission tasked with “reimagining” the state following the coronavirus. Schmidt said he will focus on areas such as telehealth, remote learning, and broadband.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com