EXCLUSIVE: Mark Maluso, longtime CEO of Las Vegas firm Base Entertainment, has acquired a majority stake in the company four years after selling it to private equity-backed parent LiveCo.
Base develops, creates, promotes and manages live entertainment productions in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Its roster includes Criss Angel Mindfreak at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino and Magic Mike Live Las Vegas at Sahara Las Vegas. Past productions in Las Vegas have included Particle Ink at Luxor Hotel & Casino, Absinthe at Caesars Palace, Jersey Boys at the Palazzo and Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular at the Venetian.
Financial terms were not disclosed. LiveCo, led by CEO Chuck Steedman, is more focused on live music, which has its own financial structure and differs from general entertainment.
Maluso became CEO of Base in 2016 and sold the company to LiveCo in 2021.
There was “no frustration” between parties leading up to the deal, Maluso told Deadline in an interview. “It came to be pretty evident that the Base model and the LiveCo model had become different.”
In the official announcement, Maluso described the deal as helping Base Entertainment “return to our roots, starting with the pursuit of new and developing work. Our forward-thinking strategy will also include select concert promotion and international attraction touring.”
The transaction will better equip Base to identify viable productions in a rapidly evolving market, Maluso said. Las Vegas, long known for music residencies and song-and-dance revues performed in traditional theaters, has added a host of other lures for tourists. The NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and the NHL’s Stanley Cup-winning Las Vegas Knights have arrived in recent years, and The Sphere opened in 2023 as a transformative live venue wrapping patrons in immersive technology. Auto racing circuit Formula 1 has staged races for the past two years, with the November event clogging traffic and necessitating all manner of closures and adjustments up and down the famous Strip.
“I’ve been living here for nine years and the city has radically changed during that time,” Maluso said. The entertainment industry, too, has sought to keep pace with the changing tastes of tourists, who spend an average of just two or three nights during their stays.
As far as conventional, Broadway-derived fare performed in proscenium theaters, “that ship has sailed,” Maluso said, as most audiences “lack the patience” for it. The crowds returning after the Covid lull, though, are looking for a good time and can be engaged with innovative and creative productions. “We are committed to meeting the rapidly evolving tastes and expectations of today’s audiences,” the CEO said in the official announcement. “No city on earth has such a richly diverse, multiethnic, and international audience base, making the insights we gain here uniquely useful in growing our national and international touring businesses alongside our Vegas-centric ventures.”
Joining Maluso in the executive suite as CFO of Base is Henry Chu, who previously served as EVP of the company.
Before Base, Maluso was president of CAMI Ventures, a subsidiary of Columbia Artists Management; and SVP of IMG Artists, where he developed, produced and managed artists and attractions.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com ’
