Who Actually Owns Drake's OVO?
Drake started OVO with his friends in Toronto.
The owl became recognizable around the world. OVO opened stores in cities including Toronto, New York and London.
So the answer to a simple question seems obvious.
Who owns OVO?
Drake.
Except that is no longer quite the answer.
In August 2026, a deal split OVO into different pieces.
One company now controls most of the intellectual property.
Another operates the stores and clothing business.
And Drake still owns a large piece of the brand he helped create.
To understand who owns OVO, you first have to understand what it actually means to own a brand.
OVO Is Now Split 51 / 44 / 5
The simplest place to start is with three numbers.
51% — Authentic Brands Group
44% — Drake
5% — Vince Holding Corp.
Those are the ownership stakes in the company that now holds OVO's intellectual property.
Authentic has the majority.
Drake still owns a substantial 44%.
Vince owns the remaining 5%.
But that doesn't mean Authentic is running OVO stores.
That's where things get interesting.
Vince Bought the Business
Vince Holding Corp. acquired OVO's operating business.
That includes OVO's operating companies, stores, e-commerce platform and wholesale relationships across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
OVO currently has 12 stores, and its existing team will continue operating from Toronto.
Vince plans to use its infrastructure to help expand stores, e-commerce and wholesale distribution.
So when it comes to the physical business of selling an OVO hoodie, Vince is now extremely important.
But Vince doesn't own most of OVO's intellectual property.
It owns only 5%.
Instead, Vince has a long-term license allowing it to use OVO's intellectual property to manufacture and sell apparel.
And for that right, it pays royalties.
The company operating OVO's clothing business licenses the OVO brand from another company.
So What Did Authentic Buy?
Authentic Brands Group acquired 51% of the company holding OVO's intellectual property.
That intellectual property is the valuable invisible part of the business.
The brand.
Its trademarks.
Its identity.
The rights that allow someone to put OVO on a product and sell it as an OVO product.
According to transaction documents, the purchase price for OVO's intellectual-property assets was approximately $117.65 million.
That number should not be confused with the value of the entire OVO business.
The operating companies and the intellectual property were separated as part of the transaction.
That's precisely what makes this deal interesting.
A brand and the company operating that brand do not have to be the same thing.
Imagine a Hoodie
Suppose you walk into an OVO store and buy a hoodie.
The structure now looks roughly like this.
Drake helped create the brand and owns 44% of the IP company.
Authentic controls that company with 51%.
Vince operates the apparel business and owns the remaining 5% of the IP company.
Vince has the exclusive right to use OVO's intellectual property to manufacture and sell licensed apparel worldwide.
In return, Vince pays royalties.
The hoodie is physical.
The store is physical.
The inventory is physical.
But some of the value created by that hoodie flows toward something you cannot touch:
the right to use the OVO brand.
That's the business Authentic specializes in.
Meet the Company Behind the Brands
Most consumers have probably never heard of Authentic Brands Group.
They have almost certainly heard of some of its brands.
Its portfolio includes Reebok, Champion, Sports Illustrated and Brooks Brothers, along with dozens of other brands and cultural properties.
In total, Authentic says its portfolio contains more than 50 brands and cultural properties.
Its network includes more than 1,700 licensing and strategic partners across 150 countries.
Together, brands in its portfolio generate more than $38 billion in annual systemwide retail sales.
That does not mean Authentic itself earns $38 billion in revenue.
It means products associated with its portfolio generate more than $38 billion in retail sales around the world.
Authentic's business is different.
It owns intellectual property and finds other companies to operate businesses around it.
Why Own the Name Instead of the Store?
Running a fashion company is difficult.
You need employees.
Inventory.
Warehouses.
Factories.
Stores.
E-commerce systems.
Shipping.
Returns.
Unsold clothing.
And working capital.
Owning intellectual property can be a very different business.
Instead of manufacturing every shoe, shirt or perfume yourself, you can license the brand to companies that already know how to make and distribute those products.
They handle much of the operating work.
The IP owner collects royalties.
This is one reason a famous brand can appear across many different categories without one company manufacturing everything itself.
The intellectual property stays at the center.
Different operators can build businesses around it.
OVO Can Now Become Bigger Than OVO Clothing
This may be the most important part of the transaction.
Authentic isn't simply buying part of an existing streetwear company.
It sees an opportunity to expand OVO into new categories, markets and channels.
Vince handles the core apparel operation.
Authentic can work on extending the intellectual property.
And Drake remains economically connected to the brand through his 44% ownership while continuing to provide creative vision and brand support.
Each party does something different.
Drake provides cultural relevance.
Vince provides operating infrastructure.
Authentic provides IP ownership and licensing infrastructure.
That separation can make expansion easier.
OVO no longer has to build every new business itself.
It can potentially let specialists build businesses using the OVO name.
But There Is a Risk
Licensing can make a brand much bigger.
It can also weaken one.
A brand is valuable partly because consumers associate it with something specific.
If its name starts appearing everywhere, that meaning can fade.
A streetwear brand that feels exclusive can become ordinary.
A celebrity brand can begin to feel like merchandise.
The financial incentive is obvious.
More categories can create more licensing opportunities.
More licensing can generate more royalties.
But every additional product also uses a little of the brand's cultural capital.
That creates a difficult balancing act:
How much can you monetize a brand before monetizing it changes the brand?
For OVO, that question may ultimately matter more than how many new stores it opens.
Its greatest asset isn't a store.
It's what the owl means to the people who recognize it.
Drake Didn't Simply Sell OVO
This is why saying "Drake sold OVO" misses what actually happened.
He didn't simply take a check and walk away.
Authentic owns the majority of the OVO IP company.
Drake retains 44%.
Vince owns 5% of the IP and operates the apparel business under license.
Drake remains involved with the brand.
Three parties now participate in three different parts of the machine.
And that machine illustrates something much larger than OVO.
Walk through a shopping mall and everything looks physical.
Shoes.
Shirts.
Stores.
Shelves.
But behind many famous brands sits another economy.
Trademarks.
Licenses.
Royalties.
Intellectual property.
The company making the product may not own the brand.
The company running the store may not control the intellectual property.
And the celebrity who created much of the cultural value may own only part of the asset.
So who actually owns OVO?
It depends on which part of OVO you're talking about.
And that's exactly the point.
BEYOND THE OBVIOUS.