Since Clyde Lear left Learfield Communications in 2011, his teenage company grew up and had a family.
Lear, a Jefferson City native and founder of the college sports marketing powerhouse Learfield Communications, sold most of his stake in Learfield in 2011, and today maintains no involvement in the company.
On Thursday, Plano, Texas-based Learfield Communications announced its intention to merge with New York-based IMG College, uniting the two largest college sports marketing companies in the country.
In Jefferson City in 1972, Learfield Communications grew out of Lear's master's project at the University of Missouri. It later stumbled into sports in 1975 when it began distributing radio rights for Missouri sports and when Lear began acquiring collegiate sports rights across the county in the mid-1980s.
"We backed into the sports business," Lear said.
Private equity firm Shamrock Capital purchased an almost 80 percent stake in Learfield in 2011 that valued the company at $100 million, according to the New York Times. Later Shamrock flipped its stake to Providence Equity Partners for more than $500 million. Just last October, Providence sold its stake to Atairos Group for $1.3 billion, according to the Times.
Terms of the transaction between Learfield and IMG College have not been announced, but Forbes said analysts valued a merger between the two college sports marketing giants at $2.5 billion.
For decades, Lear served as the chief executive officer and chairman at Learfield. After he sold most of his stake when he retired in 2011 and sold a small remaining stake in 2013, he estimated Learfield tripled in size.
"It's really wonderful, the guys that are running it today," he said.
Lear mentored Learfield CEO Greg Brown and Executive Vice President Roger Gardner. More than anything, he said he's proud to see them succeed.
"Nothing can make me prouder than to watch these men grow like they have been able to do," Lear said. "They've just done wonderful things with the business."
Learfield employees 115 people full-time at its Jefferson City office, where it houses its broadcast operations and some human resources personnel.
Learfield has multimedia and sponsorship rights for 130 colleges, conferences and arenas across the country including the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma and MU. Its core business revolves around media and marketing deals and stadium signage. In recent years, Learfield also picked up ticket sales, stadium concessions and hospitality businesses.
IMG College also represents about 90 colleges and universities nationwide and has trademark licensing agreements with about 80 percent of Power Five schools. Previously, the companies worked closely through a joint ticketing venture created in 2012.
Both companies have networks of radio affiliates that include thousands of radio stations broadcasting games across the country. Together, both companies represent 70 percent of Division I universities and about 80 percent of Power Five schools, according to Forbes.
A merger of that size could attract anti-trust scrutiny, and the Justice Department will still need to approve the merger.
Learfield spokeswoman Jennifer Duncan declined to comment, citing the pending transaction and stressed the deal has been agreed to but not finalized.
The new company will be headquartered in Plano, Texas, according to the news release. Brown will serve as president and CEO of the new company. He said in the news release the new company will be "more efficiently" able to benefit clients.
Lear said he was at the office Friday when Learfield executives visited and assured employees there will be no changes in Jefferson City if the merger is approved.
"That was good to hear," Lear said.
Learfield said in the news release most offices sit near college campuses, which will protect current jobs and create new opportunities for new and future employees.
While Lear feels confident in the new company's leadership and that they won't close the Jefferson City office, he said he'd give Brown and Gardner his blessing if they came to him and told him they planned to close the office.
Now, with his apprentices leading his company to its next destination, all Lear can do is sit back and watch its family grow.
"I just generally like to see the businesses remain," he said. "I don't know if that's in the cards."