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Creative Artists Agency has announced that it will acquire rival talent pool ICM, combining two powerful teams of agents amid sweeping changes in Hollywood and the global sports industry.
The deal, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the year, comes after talent agencies were forced to lay off workers due to live event suspensions linked to the pandemic and costly delays in filmed productions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
This would be the first major merger of talent pools since the William Morris agency combined with Endeavor in 2009. Endeavor, led by Hollywood impresario Ari Emanuel, has been backed by private equity group Silver Lake for a decade and is went public in April. It has a market capitalization of $ 12.5 billion.
“It’s having a seismic impact in Hollywood that must definitely get people talking about Endeavor,” said Eric Schiffer, president of Reputation Management Consultants.
The deal will bring CAA clients – including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg – together under the same roof as ICM’s Samuel L Jackson, Olivia Colman and Uma Thurman.
Private equity firm TPG invested in CAA in 2010, taking a controlling stake four years later in a deal that valued the arts agency at over $ 1 billion. The deal came as financial investors looked for ways to cash in on skyrocketing content rights as streaming music and video created new ways to monetize artist catalogs and spark a production boom. television.
The CAA-ICM deal comes to another inflection point, with Hollywood studios launching their own streaming platforms and potentially challenging the traditional way of paying actors for their work.
This summer, Johansson filed a lawsuit against Walt Disney after its release Black Widow on Disney + at the same time as its theatrical release. Johansson alleged the move cost him a bonus linked to box office sales. Disney says the costume has “no merit.”
Bryan Lourd, CAA co-chair, said he hoped such changes in the media industry would translate into “a better world” for the agency’s clients.
“We are really excited about the opportunities our clients have in this new world order, and one of the guiding principles behind business consolidation is to respond to this challenge of the future,” he added.
Last year, ICM acquired London-based ICM Stellar Sports with a list of 800 clients comprising a number of football stars, from Chelsea’s Saúl Ñíguez to Manchester City’s Jack Grealish. His strength in the English Premier League complements CAA’s dominance in North American sports.
Endeavor went beyond mere representation of athletes with the acquisition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship from the Mixed Martial Arts League. Emanuel told a Goldman Sachs press conference last week that he also sees a big opportunity in sports betting, an area that traditional agencies shouldn’t tackle.
Schiffer said the question for CAA-ICM is whether they would look to expand with new acquisitions to compete with Endeavor and its valuation in the public market.
“What does that suggest? Are they considering other acquisitions like Endeavor did with the UFC? he said.
Yet CAA is a dominant force in film, television, music, and sports. In addition to its favorite fields of cinema, television and theater, the ICM has a strong book division. The two Los Angeles-based groups boast of their strength in emerging areas such as podcasting.
Lourd said the two groups have been discussing a deal informally for years, but now “the timing is unbelievably good.”
“We will have more resources and expertise around the world to do things with writers, directors, comedians, musicians and athletes on the ground,” he said.
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