Almost nine months to the day after the surprise Deadline scoop that CAA would acquire ICM Partners, the deal finally got government approval and closed. This creates a mega agency in the biggest linkup in the space since the WMA-Endeavor merger in 2009. Sources close to the situation said the Department of Justice finally approved the deal late Monday night or this morning, and it closed. It is valued around $750 million, and a combined enterprise value around $5 billion. The merged company’s leadership is expected to address staff at a town hall Thursday, with the newly combined departments set to begin their integration process with get-togethers on July 11, we hear.
Around 105 positions will be eliminated, all from ICM, and coming from all areas. There will be 425 ICM agents and staffers from the agency joining CAA, meaning around 80% will be retained by CAA. These conversations will happen quickly. A couple of dozen agents and other staffers have left in the past few months after the regulatory approval process dragged on, delaying the deal by about six months from the time frame CAA and ICM originally had projected. The bloodletting will be expedited and everyone will know where they stand shortly, if they don’t know already.
We’ve heard that much of the value of the deal to star incoming agents will come in stock, though ICM investor Crestview will get the bulk of the $200 million or so of cash that CAA and TPG have put in to close this deal. That stock will figure to be valuable if CAA and its majority owner TPG finally take the company public.
As Deadline reported earlier this month, the ICM agents whom the combined company wants to keep recently received formal invitations and non-negotiable offers of cash and stock, which have not been received well.
Recent departures include Daniel Cohan, Michael Kagan, Chris Von Goetz, Katie Cates, Andrew Rogers, Brittany Perlmuter, Joanne Wiles, Kyle Jaeger, James Robins Early, Jessica Lacy, Carol Goll, Chris Smith and Greg Jules. They join a number of agents who left over the past eight months including Jeff Barry, Dan Baime, John Burnham, Josh Rahm, Matt Sorger, April King, Ariel Meislin, Adam Ginivisian, Nathalie Didier, Christina Bazdekis, Denise Draper, JR Ringer, Kevin Hussey, Zach Carlisle, Brett Passis, Seth Lawrence and Will Kircher. Several ICM departments have been greatly impacted, sources said, including branding, post-production and alternative. Longtime ICM spokesman Brad Turell will be among those leaving also.
Those who left before they were pushed did so to retain their clients, which would have been jeopardized if they’d waited on a severance check. The nine months gave time to many who were not going to make the cut to plot their next move, and ICM let people out of their contracts, we’re told.
Word is that more people are being let go today, mostly back office employees.
ICM CEO Chris Silbermann is expected to join CAA co-chairmen Kevin Huvane, Bryan Lourd and Richard Lovett and TPG reps on the CAA ownership board. It is unclear who from ICM would be included on the operational board, but rising stars such as talent head Lorrie Bartlett have been rumored as possibilities.
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