Sphere Entertainment Co. SPHR → Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE
| Parent | Sphere Entertainment Co. SPHR |
|---|---|
| Spinco | Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE |
| Status | Completed |
| Structure | Spin-off A filing states a pro-rata distribution: holders receive shares automatically. |
| Focus | Focus-increasing Parent and spinco operate in different industries — the class the research associates with stronger post-separation returns. |
| Ratio | 1 new MSG Entertainment share for every 1 share of the former MSG Entertainment |
| Ratio note | Distributed class for class; holders of record held the company now named Sphere Entertainment. |
| Parent retains | 33.0% |
| Checked against EDGAR | 2026-08-22 |
Data trap
The most dangerous ticker case in this dataset. Before the separation MSGE was the PARENT, then named Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.; it renamed itself Sphere Entertainment and moved to SPHR, while the newly separated company took the MSGE symbol. A price series keyed on MSGE therefore switches companies overnight: it closed at 60.56 on April 20 and 30.99 on April 21, which is not a crash but two different businesses. Volume gives no warning — the parent traded 316,970 shares that last day, an ordinary session — so the anchor here comes from the filing's stated first regular-way date rather than from any inference. The parent also retained 33 percent, and the deal's perimeter changed during 2022 when MSG Networks was removed from it.
The restated filings have landed; this is kept as history.
Catalyst clock
- 2022-08-18Separation announced
- 2023-02-16Form 10 filed
- 2023-03-30Form 10 last amended
- 2023-04-03Form 10 effective
- 2023-04-14Record date
- —When-issued trading opens
- 2023-04-20Distribution
- 2023-08-18First standalone earnings
- —Index inclusion announced
Performance since separation
| Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. since separation | +157.79% |
|---|---|
| Sphere Entertainment Co. over the same window | +466.18% |
| S&P 500 (SPY) over the same window | +85.91% |
| Russell 2000 (IWM) over the same window | +69.15% |
| Excess over the S&P 500 | +71.88% |
| Excess over the Russell 2000 | +88.64% |
Measured from the first regular-way close on or after the distribution — 2023-04-21 at 30.99 — to 2026-08-21 at 79.89. Window: 3.3 years. The 2023-04-20 session was skipped: it traded on when-issued volume, not regular-way, and pricing from it would measure the return against a market that no longer existed the next day. Two benchmarks, because one is misleading: spin-offs are usually small companies, and across this period small caps lagged the S&P by several points a year on their own. Measured against the S&P alone, roughly a third of any shortfall is company size rather than the separation. Returns are arithmetic over end-of-day closing prices. Unlike every other figure on this page, they do not come from a filing.
Pre-distribution investor return
| Parent, announcement to separation | -3.21% |
|---|---|
| Combined (Sphere Entertainment Co. + Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.), pre-distribution to now | +749.98% |
| Combined excess over the S&P 500 | +665.09% |
| Combined excess over the Russell 2000 | +681.70% |
Combined treats a pre-spin holding as 1 new MSG Entertainment share for every 1 share of the former MSG Entertainment valued at the parent's last close before regular post-spin trading resumed — 2023-04-19 at 28.03 — against that same basket today. That baseline is a practical proxy, not an attempt to isolate exactly how much value the separation transferred: for a large parent and a small spinco, ordinary day-to-day price noise can be bigger than the transfer itself. Run-up measures only the parent's own price, from the announcement date to that same baseline — how far the market had already moved before the separation's mechanics ever happened.
Filings
Every fact on this page comes from one of these.
- 8-Kfiled 2022-08-19 · 0001193125-22-225288Announcement of the plan to explore a separation of the live entertainment business
- 10-12B/Afiled 2023-03-30 · 0001193125-23-084013Final Form 10 amendment
- 8-Kfiled 2023-04-04 · 0001193125-23-089858Form 10 declared effective April 3, 2023; final information statement with the class-for-class ratio, the April 14 record date and the 11:59 p.m. April 20 distribution
- 8-Kfiled 2023-04-24 · 0001193125-23-112870Completion: 27,692,030 Class A and 6,866,754 Class B shares distributed; the parent retained 17,021,491 Class A shares
- 10-Kfiled 2023-08-18 · 0001952073-23-000012First annual report; states regular-way trading began April 21, 2023 and quantifies the retained stake at 33.0 percent
Notes
The former MSG Entertainment separated its traditional live entertainment business, keeping the Sphere venue and renaming itself Sphere Entertainment. Both entities have answered to the MSG Entertainment name in filings, and the spinco carries two share classes. Left unclassified: parent and spinco both sit in amusement and recreation services, and the split is between venue types rather than industries. Classified focus_increasing: post-separation Sphere Entertainment (parent) repositions around the Sphere technology-venue platform, MSG Networks and Tao Group Hospitality, explicitly stating it 'will have no interest, contractual or otherwise, in the Sphere venues' business it's distributing — Madison Square Garden Entertainment (spinco) keeps only the traditional touring venues (The Garden, Radio City, the Beacon, the Chicago Theatre) and bookings business. Spinco already carries $679 million of debt at separation and starts with negative pro forma equity. In an unusual structure, the parent's retained 33% spinco stake is pledged as loan collateral for unrelated Sphere Las Vegas construction debt, not held as a strategic investment.