Hollywood company CAA buying rival ICM to create film powerhouse

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Inventive Artists Company stated it will purchase the rival expertise group ICM, combining two highly effective stables of brokers amid sweeping adjustments in Hollywood and the worldwide sports activities business.

The deal, which is anticipated to shut by the top of the yr, comes after expertise businesses have been pressured to dismiss staff as a result of pandemic-related suspensions of stay occasions and expensive delays in filmed productions. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.

It will be the primary massive merger of expertise teams because the William Morris Company mixed with Endeavor in 2009. Endeavor, led by Hollywood impresario Ari Emanuel, was backed by the personal fairness group Silver Lake for a decade and went public in April. It has a market capitalisation of $12.5bn.

The deal will deliver CAA’s shoppers — which embrace Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg — beneath the identical roof as ICM’s Samuel L Jackson, Olivia Colman and Uma Thurman.

The personal fairness agency TPG invested in CAA in 2010, taking a majority stake 4 years later in a transaction that valued the expertise company at greater than $1bn.

The deal got here as monetary traders sought methods of making the most of content material rights that soared in worth as music and video streaming created new methods of monetising artists’ again catalogues and triggered a increase in tv manufacturing.

CAA, primarily based in Los Angeles, has strengths in movie, TV, music and sports activities. Apart from its core areas of movie, tv and theatre, ICM has a powerful books division. ICM final yr acquired London-based ICM Stellar Sports activities, which has greater than 800 shoppers world wide. Each teams boast of their energy in rising areas reminiscent of podcasting.

“The strategic mixture of CAA and ICM bolsters our collective sources, experience and relationships to ship much more alternatives for our world-class shoppers to construct their careers and their manufacturers throughout a number of disciplines and platforms in an evolving market,” CAA stated.