CKX agreed to be acquired by a group led by its chief executive for $13.75 a share in cash, sending its shares spiraling higher.
Chairman and CEO Robert Sillerman on Thursday said he and other executives had made a $1.3 billion bid to privatize the company, which controls the names, images and likenesses of the late music and movie icon Elvis Presley and the living boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
The former radio and concert mogul is getting a hand in the effort from Simon Fuller, chief executive of CKX subsidiary 19 Entertainment Limited, the British-based firm behind the "Pop Idol" television talent show and its hit U.S. spinoff, "American Idol."