Talent representation is supposed to be one of the entertainment industry’s most stable departments. CAA’s acquisition of ICM states otherwise, pointing to a new era in Hollywood.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and its rival International Creative Management (ICM) make up two of Hollywood’s “big four” talent agencies, the other two being William Morris Endeavor (WME) and United Talent Agency (UTA).
An acquisition deal was signed between CAA and ICM on September 27, locking the two powerhouses in a merger.
There are several reasons behind this move — an obvious one (and perhaps, the last straw) is the pandemic, which caused several actors, writers, directors and creative minds to be out of business.
Because of this, talent agencies had to go through massive layoffs as well as opted to sign up TikTokers, whose industry remained somewhat unaffected in 2020.
Another important one is that in recent years, talent agencies were made to slowly move out of content production and packaging processes (thanks to Writer’s Guild), which has limited their power.
For whatever reasons the two have come together, its end result is the same: big changes and the dawn of Hollywood’s monolithic system. In addition, TPG Capital’s (CAA’s majority owner) plans to offer public equity.
Here’s ICM’s CEO Chris Silbermann’s thoughts on the acquisition (via The Hollywood Reporter):
We always fight for our clients and respect our clients. And that is not going to change. What this [merger] does is bring more resources to bear for our clients, more collaboration, better ideas, and a better platform.
Silbermann
The merger will bring many big names (like Steven Spielberg, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pit, Shonda Rhimes, Michael Keaton, and several others) under one roof.
Other than questions of how the talent/clients will feel about this colossal move, there are also talks of how the companies will handle management, especially layoffs. Officials from both companies have said it is still too early in the process to address these concerns.
Subject to government scrutiny, CAA’s deal with ICM will be finalized by the end of 2021.
CAA’s prowess in sports representation and ICM’s empire of book representation will make this a merger to reckon with.
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