Endeavor And WMA Meeting Over Merger

COMMENTS (25)

• I have the perfect name for the new company, that’s an in-yo-face to caa –

  VALIDATE

  Comment by charlie — Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 2:17pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m still going with “no way in hell”. WMA is stuck in the last century, then with Endeavor would be worse than AOL – Time Warner.

  Comment by Tom — Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 3:01pm PST  Reply to this post

• If the merger happens i vote for the name:

  EndovWilliamMorris Agency.

  Comment by nyguy — Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 8:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• The only reason this makes sense is that Endeavor needs the money to grow and to compete with caa. WMA has more money that god as they own half the real estate in BH.

  Comment by Anonymous — Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 8:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• Yikes, a merger would up the stakes for sure. Love to see Endeavor make a horse race outta this and really be able to give CAA a run for its money – if, that is – they don’t lose all their street cred and cache by takin WMA aboard. If sumpin works – stick with it. While WMA may bring in tons of new revenue it’d also open the flood gates for many unexpected troubles. But then again – who am I fooling, at the end of the day it’s all about bucks. And those WMA pockets go DEEP.

  Comment by Lewis B. Rangle — Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 11:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• In my eyes, this is a real shame. No agency is perfect and God knows none of them run efficiently, but Endeavor and UTA to me are the ones that come the closest to doing things right. They are both lean and get all the projects covered for clients. If Endeavor combines with WMA and tries to run at CAA, that will all go out the window. Some companies are good because they aren’t the biggest.

  I have always been impressed by the flow of information at CAA, but a lot also gets lost in the shuffle. CAA is too big, with too many moving parts. Sometimes, smaller and leaner gets the job done.

  Comment by offthebeatenpath1 — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 3:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• We’ve been at both agencies and if the lame group at WMA emerges as the “leader” of our TV area, we’ll exit (with Endeavor now). Got away from them once and would do it again.

  Comment by G Bryan — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 6:30am PDT  Reply to this post

• this would ruin endeavor’s rep……..

  1/2 of wma needs to be fired

  Comment by poor endeavor — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 2:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Like it or not, it would be exciting news, but boy would there be massive layoffs at wma

  Comment by rhona barrett — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 5:29pm PDT  Reply to this post

• If they merge, WMA needs to shed it’s snakeskin and let End. run the show. End. is savvier, has a better talent list and seems to have some sort of cohesion over there – even under the iron fist of Ari “Gold.” Perhaps WMA has run it’s course – even Pan Am is gone – and let smarter, 21st Century thinkers prevail. As for WMA’s remains, keep the music and reality divisions but close out the talent dept.

  Comment by F. — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 5:55pm PDT  Reply to this post

• William Morris would not be doing this if they had all that money…They sold the building in beverly hills out of desperation…Morris is drowning in overhead..with a T.V department that cannot package and has NO taste in writers…

  Comment by stanley — Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 6:19pm PDT  Reply to this post

• “If the merger happens i vote for the name:
  EndovWilliamMorris Agency.”

  I vote for End-ov-agency.

  I can’t imagine squeezing Ari’s ego and anyone from WMA in the same building. It’s against the laws of physics.

  Comment by l.a.guy — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 12:02am PDT  Reply to this post

• Having worked at WMA at the highest levels for over 20 years I can say this will be a very bad fit. I was at WMA when the last large merger took place and the incoming company which was weaker saw mass firings along with the power shift in the management of the firm going to WMA. Normally when this type merger takes place the weaker of the two companies is hit the hardest. It then becomes more like a takover than a merger with a blood bath to follow.

  Comment by beentherebefore — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 8:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• It may be that WM is a dinosaur and is in desperate need of a makeover. But if the rumors about Endeavor’s enduring debt and the partners having to go into their own pockets to cover overhead AND salaries on some months are true then Endeavor has much more to gain from this merger than WM…like perhaps their very survival. These agencies are not so different from some big wall street firms in that they have been spending money they don’t have…or expect to have soon, but never arrives. And now for sure it’s not going to arrive bc the spigot from the studios is being put on “conserve” mode. As with wall street firms, its time for the agencies to understand — the party’s over.

  Comment by slimed — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 8:31am PDT  Reply to this post

• Guess Rainn Wilson’s bummin, eh? “Every time I get out, they keep DRAGGIN me back IN!”

  Comment by Garbo — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 10:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m stunned that so many people still think WMA is flush with cash. Yes, they have a lot of money still coming in from old TV packages, but they own NO real estate any more and they owned only three buildings, not the “half of Beverly Hills” that the legend propagates. Their film division has been in disarray for deacades and never seen an uptick with the hiring of Wiatt and his stooges. TV also had been on a downward spiral since before even Sam Haskell took over, he was a joke and Aaron Kaplan is another kind of joke. All the agencies are in bad financial straits these days, partly because of the economy and partly because of profligate spending on executives like Wiatt and Wirtschafter and all their loyal minions.

  Comment by Huh — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 10:54am PDT  Reply to this post

• I don’t think that anyone here realizes what WMA has in their pockets unless you’ve worked with them in the last 6 months. With their pocket book and Endeavor’s clout, it’s inevitable that they would make a stylish pair that has the tenacity to become something great!

  Comment by DouchebagsinFilm — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 8:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’d like to see Huh cite his/her sources – or should I say, justify your opinion – regarding WMA’s cashflow.

  Have none of you read what William Morris is doing with YouTube? Do you all really think the big money is in Talent, MoPic and TV anymore? Do you really think WMA thinks the “big money” is in Talent and TV? WMA is doing incredibly well with regard to raking in the cash with Music, Personal Appearances, Endorsements, Consulting and Intellectual Property. Not to mention they practically have a monopoly in the non-scripted markets, with clients like Bunim-Murray, Fremantle and a slew of other top-notch clients, they dominate the reality scene – like it or not, that’s where the money in TV is at. Scripted is dead…as for anything JJ Abrams puts out…and what agency does he happened to be repped by? Coincidence? Sounds to me like WMA has got it all right. It’s all about Vertical and Horizontal integration folks. Put Endeavor and WMA together, and you have yourself a superpower. It’s time for Hollywood to rebalance itself. Let me correct that…it’s time for the Entertainment Industry to rebalance itself. I think we can all agree that the old “Hollywood” is dead.

  I’ll have to throw it out there, too, that DouchebagsinFilm is one of the few people posting on here that seems to have any objectivity to what he/she is saying.

  Comment by Matty — Monday March 9, 2009 @ 11:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well, Matty, considering that the YouTube deal was just an announcement that is really just giving WMA some real estate on its homepage, I would hardly say that is proof of new revenue streams. Even YouTube scoffs at its viability. Music is a huge revenue generator and the only division run by an adult, Peter Grosslight. Consulting has been a loss leader since its inception, you seem smitten by the headlines and not the substance of what this company really does. And yes, JJ Abrams is a huge money-generator, some of which Endeavor still enjoys. WMA hardly has it all right, just ask anyone who works there, perhaps the most miserable staff in town.

  Comment by Huh — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 8:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• Got to agree with Matty. In general I’ve found the WMA staff at all levels to be bright, light and personable. There are many people at WMA who understand the future of entertainment and are doing something about it. Merger or not, watch what comes out of WMA in the next couple of years.

  Comment by Bode — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 12:21pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Haha “most miserable staff in town.” It is just hilarious/puzzling to me that there is such an anti-WMA element on this website. I can understand why people would take potshots at CAA, but why WMA?? I know lots of people at WMA, and none of them are miserable. In fact, in these tough economic times, I would say WMA is one of the happiest places to work; assistants are still allowed to work overtime, they are still the only assistants in town that aren’t kicked around like piles of shit compared to other places, and there is no hiring freeze in effect. Not the dire picture that the Hollywood outsiders of the DHD comments section would have you believe of WMA, and quite different from where I work I can tell you.

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 12:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

• sounds like you were recently laid off?

  Comment by weiss — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 1:04pm PDT  Reply to this post

• A clever analysis—also known as insightful thought/logic— would support the theory that NO talent-lit agency has it “right”. Analysis of the past, reveals that WMA “sort of had it right” in the late ’70′s. Why? That is the decade when the 5 young (in terms of WMA) agents approached their Bosses at WMA w/ the dictate that they could no longer work under the patience = material wealth formula…and a specific Board Member who was a transplant from NYC was way too oppressive. WMA responded w/ “sit down & shut up”. The 5 “walked”…not to the only feasible alternative at the time, namely ICM, but to Century City & a shingle of their own. Sid Pollack (sic) put the name of the new shingle on a script prop in Tootsie, & the rest was/is history.

  WMA basically created CAA. Triad was a defensive move to purchase “movies” for the sake of perception whilst TV was the true $$$…and I bet $30+ mil WMA would want a “do over” on that one. The most perceptive comment thus far on this board is that of “Pan Am”. Pan Am was the old guard—it’s blue meatball logo sold hundreds of jets around the world for Boeing—deregulation came along, and Pan Am management should have turned the logo into a Blue Marshmallow….they bought National Airlines, which had nothing-nothing-but nothing to offer. WMA is the old guard, the You Tube “deal” is predicated upon hope opposed any tangible metric of results. The Agency Biz, is just “not right” for Mergers of any sort…unless they are entirely lopsided wherein an 800lbs Gorilla eats a crumb. WMA ought to have learned that from experience, and Endeavor—regardless of present $$$ flow—ought know that from solid business acumen. FYI…”Validate” is a very clever name. I am a WMA fan…they paid for my diapers & college education….but, Pan Am flew west, so might WMA…

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 1:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

• THE ONLY IMPORTANT QUESTION HERE IS…………WHAT ABOUT RAINN WILSON!!!!

  Comment by Mcgruber — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 2:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I wonder how many will exit Endeavor/WMA for CAA once the merger goes down, considering how many clients escaped WMA for Endeavor and vice-versa.

  Comment by JoeBlow_Asst — Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 3:37pm PDT  Reply to this post