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After Deadline announced Monday that CAA had announced the acquisition of ICM Partners as part of the first major Hollywood agency association since the WMA-Endeavor deal in 2009, the explosive news began to spread throughout the world. ‘industry.
One sector that will be interested are the Hollywood unions, and SAG-AFTRA has become the first to respond with a statement from National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
“SAG-AFTRA welcomes any changes that translate into increased bargaining power for talent as they negotiate individual deals with multi-billion dollar companies that produce content,” Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement. communicated. “We will carefully review this combination of two historic talent agencies to ensure that performers benefit from the deal and not be disadvantaged by it.”
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CAA acquisition partners of the ICM; Will be the largest association of agencies since WMA-Endeavor
Executives from both companies – Richard Lovett, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane of CAA and Chris Silbermann, director of ICM Partners – said today they believe the deal will be successful with the guilds, as well as a antitrust perspective. The Justice Department’s antitrust division would likely review the impact the deal would have on talent unions and guilds, which is why SAG-AFTRA’s take on the merger is important.
Still Gene Del Vecchio, assistant professor of marketing at USC Marshall School of Business, said via email that he “cannot imagine that there are any legitimate antitrust issues with this merger. This allows CAA and ICM to better compete with its formidable competitors, while helping it better serve its clients with a broader portfolio of opportunities … all internally.
Some have also questioned the layoffs – many agents and support staff were laid off in the consolidation that followed the WMA-Endeavor merger.
Lourd said on the deadline that they could not comment at this early stage on the prospect of layoffs or the guilds. The two companies said today that “the complementary combination of CAA and ICM will create deeper, broader and more competitive opportunities for customers in the ever-changing entertainment, media and sports landscapes.”
News of the CAA-ICM deal comes as all the major agencies shut down the packaging business that was a staple, after a brutal standoff with the Writers Guild last year.
The Writers Guild of America, which has also criticized industry consolidation, has yet to comment on the transaction.
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