Celebrity Business Moves — 2026-05-18

Top Moves This Week

Byron Allen — Takes Majority Stake in BuzzFeed for $120 Million, Becomes CEO

• The Move: Allen invested $120 million to acquire a majority stake in BuzzFeed and will take over as CEO of the digital media company.
• Details: The $120 million deal gives Allen Media Group controlling ownership of BuzzFeed, the once-dominant millennial media brand that has struggled financially in recent years. Allen will also continue leasing the 12:37 a.m. CBS time slot for his comedy game show Funny You Should Ask, with his company handling all ad sales through the 2026–27 TV season.
• Why It Matters: BuzzFeed, which pioneered viral digital content, has been seeking a lifeline for years. Allen — already a significant force in media through Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios — is betting that combining star power, aggressive ad sales, and his operational playbook can revive the brand. It's one of the largest celebrity-driven media acquisitions in recent memory.
• Smart or Risky?: Bold but calculated. Allen has a track record of acquiring undervalued media assets and turning them profitable through ad sales dominance. The risk is BuzzFeed's brand relevance in a fragmented media landscape. If Allen can monetize its existing audience while refreshing its content strategy, this could be a landmark deal. The downside: BuzzFeed's core business has been structurally challenged for years.

OpenSponsorship Report — Female Athletes Capture 75% of Brand Deals as Average Size Doubles

• The Move: OpenSponsorship released its 2026 annual report showing a dramatic reshaping of the athlete endorsement market, with female athletes now receiving the lion's share of brand partnerships.
• Details: According to the report — drawing on data from 14.9 million posts — 75% of all brand deals on the platform now go to female athletes, and the average deal size has doubled compared to prior periods. The report also flagged that many brands are still measuring influencer success with the wrong social media metrics.
• Why It Matters: This is a structural, not cyclical, shift. Brands are recognizing that female athletes drive higher engagement and more authentic community connections. The doubling of average deal sizes suggests brands are moving from low-cost spray-and-pray approaches to fewer, more meaningful partnerships.
• Smart or Risky?: Smart for brands leaning in early — the return on investment for female athlete partnerships has been demonstrably stronger. Athletes and their agents should be capitalizing on this moment to negotiate longer-term, equity-style deals rather than one-off campaigns.

Celebrity Entrepreneurs — Actors Pivot From Endorsements to Equity Ownership

• The Move: A new YourStory analysis published this week highlights the accelerating trend of actors and entertainers moving beyond endorsements to become genuine startup founders, taking equity stakes in companies across beauty, wellness, health, and fashion.
• Details: The piece, focused on five high-profile celebrity founders, notes that stars are increasingly identifying market gaps from personal experience and building brands around them — rather than simply licensing their likeness. Sectors attracting the most celebrity founder attention include beauty, health/wellness, and direct-to-consumer fashion.
• Why It Matters: The shift from "face of the brand" to "owner of the brand" has massive financial and cultural implications. Celebrities who own equity can generate generational wealth far beyond what endorsement checks provide — and consumers are responding positively to founders who have authentic connections to their products.
• Smart or Risky?: The equity path is smarter long-term but demands genuine involvement. Celebrity-founded brands that succeed share a common thread: the founder is actually engaged in product development, not just showing up for photoshoots.

1 sources

yourstory.com

Beyond the arc lights: 5 celebrities who are building brands and startups | YourStory

Brand Launches & Expansions

• YSE Beauty — Scaling aggressively into wholesale via Sephora: The celebrity-founded beauty brand (which experienced 120% revenue growth in 2025) is projecting more than 80% growth in 2026. New funding secured this week will support e-commerce operations while rapidly expanding its Sephora wholesale footprint.

• Latino Celebrity Entrepreneurs (Thalía & Salma Hayek) — Continued expansion of clothing lines and audiovisual production ventures targeting the U.S. market, highlighted in a new 2026 analysis of celebrity business diversification. Both figures are cited as models of income diversification for the Latin American entertainment community.

Investments & Deals

• Byron Allen invested $120 million in BuzzFeed: Majority stake acquisition with Allen taking on the CEO role. Media sector; strategic angle is combining ad sales firepower with legacy digital brand assets.

• YSE Beauty founders partnered with Sephora for wholesale expansion: New funding round secured to fuel rapid retail scaling after triple-digit revenue growth; e-commerce and wholesale simultaneously targeted. Beauty/DTC sector.

Sports Stars in Business

• Female Athletes (Collective): Per the OpenSponsorship 2026 Report, female athletes are now the dominant force in brand deal volume, capturing 75% of all deals on the platform with average deal values doubling year-over-year. This marks a fundamental reordering of the sports sponsorship market.

• Aramark / Las Vegas Athletics: Named Sports Business Journal's Deal of the Year, Aramark committed a landmark 20-year food and beverage management deal at the Athletics' upcoming Las Vegas ballpark — including at least $175 million in total commitment (capital expenditure plus a team stake). While not a celebrity athlete deal, it represents the biggest sports business transaction recognized this week and sets the table for athlete ownership conversations around the new venue.

Analysis: What's Trending

• Media & digital content remain high-stakes celebrity investment targets. Byron Allen's BuzzFeed acquisition signals that savvy entertainment industry insiders see distressed digital media as a value play — buying recognized brand names at depressed valuations and betting on ad sales skill to turn them around.

• Female athlete partnerships are no longer a niche strategy — they're the mainstream. With 75% of brand deals now flowing to female athletes and average deal sizes doubling, brands that haven't yet built female athlete rosters are now behind the curve, not ahead of it.

• Equity over endorsement is the defining celebrity business strategy of 2026. Across beauty, wellness, and fashion, the most talked-about celebrity entrepreneurs are those taking genuine ownership stakes — not just licensing fees. This reflects both savvier talent representation and a consumer preference for authentic founder stories.

• Latino celebrities are emerging as a distinct and growing entrepreneurial segment. Figures like Thalía and Salma Hayek are highlighted as models of U.S.-market business diversification, suggesting brands and investors should be paying more attention to this demographic's purchasing power and cultural reach.

What to Watch Next

• Byron Allen's BuzzFeed turnaround timeline: Now that Allen has taken the CEO seat, the industry will be watching closely for his first major content or ad sales moves. Expect announcements about editorial direction and brand partnerships within 60–90 days.

• Female athlete brand deal escalation: With average deal sizes doubling, expect more athletes to push for equity stakes rather than flat fees — and more brands to comply. Watch for the first major female athlete to announce a co-founder or co-owner role in a mainstream consumer brand in the coming weeks.

• Celebrity beauty brand IPO pipeline: With YSE Beauty scaling aggressively into Sephora and posting triple-digit growth, the celebrity beauty category could see its next major IPO filing before end of year. Watch which other celebrity-backed brands follow suit in seeking institutional capital.