Sphere Entertainment Co. (NYSE:SPHR) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 22, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ari Danes - Investor Relations and Financial Communications

James Dolan - Executive Chairman and CEO

Andrea Greenberg - President and CEO of MSG Networks

Gautam Ranji - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Conference Call Participants

Brandon Ross - LightShed Partners

Daniel Duran - Morgan Stanley

David Joyce - Seaport Research Partners

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Sphere Entertainment Company Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ari Danes

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Sphere Entertainment's fiscal 2023 fourth quarter earnings conference call. Today's earnings call will begin with our Executive Chairman and CEO, Jim Dolan, who will provide an update on Sphere. This will be followed by an update from Andrea Greenberg, President and CEO of MSG Networks; and then Gautam Ranji, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will conclude with a review of our financial results for the period. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the Investors section of our corporate website.

Please take note of the following. Today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. And company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call.

On pages 5 and 6 of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income or AOI, a non-GAAP financial measure.

And with that, I will now turn the call over to Jim.

James Dolan

Thank you, Ari, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to be here today as we embark on our next chapter as a leading live entertainment media and technology company. We've recently completed a number of important transactions, starting with the two-thirds spinoff of MSG Entertainment, which was finalized in April. This was followed in May by the sale of our majority interest in Tao Group Hospitality. And in June, we sold approximately 40% of our retained equity interest in MSG Entertainment. These transactions have supported our growth plans for Sphere, a next generation entertainment medium that we believe will disrupt the traditional venue model.