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Now urgent emails announcing “an all staff meeting” at William Morris are being sent around Hollywood by a rival tenpercentery. (Then again, I was assured by rival agents that the WMA-Endeavor merger would be announced a month ago.) This is hilarious, and why playing out agency negotiations in public is only fun for competitors. As one tells me, “We’re just waiting for the fallout with a big giant net.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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No, it seems to be most fun for you Nikki (TOLDJA!)
Hahaha Nikki, come on… you know that all entertainment industry lunches occur firmly between the hours of 1pm-2pm.
The bottom line?
If Emanuel feels he can’t be in complete control of the new entity and isn’t dominating the town and public and media perception of the new entity as its PLAYA MAJOR DOMO – the deal won’t happen.
Unless Endeavor is really strapped for cash, is beating through the bushes to camouflage their cash flow problems, the most vulnerable cash cow which may very well be the biggest – and feels that being visibly “in charge” might be doable in the much-needed transaction and tranference which in actuality is just a – where exactly is their money coming from? – a transfusion for Endeavor.
If WMA doesn’t do massive “due diligence” centered on complete and transparently self-evident verifiability that ADDS UP they’re out of their minds.
My guess is that it’s a power putsch by Endeavor using WMA’s money. (Casual observation of WMA makes me think they’re doing just fine in terms of receivables; Wiatt feels victimized by the power of PERCEPTION. He was that way at ICM. You can’t eat “perception.” Which may in fact be the reason that Endeavor is pushing for this merger while probably pretending the EXACT OPPOSITE! “William Morris came to us! They needed US; not the other way around! Get your facts straight!” ya dig?)
Who’s holding all of the cards? Perhaps only Bank of America knows for sure. And where all the bodies are buried.
If all of the latter is true – the idea for Emanuel is : seize control; obfuscate the facts; act like you were doing WMA a favor – all of this simultaneously -
then Ari flaps his arms and crows like Peter Pan right after a high colonic. Which in fact would have just been given to WMA if Endeavor/Emanuel succeeds with what I’m guessing is their game plan.
Look under the rocks. It’s probably rigged and gamed by a gamer with no insight into artistry colliding with business. That’s Emanuel.
Wiatt’s so not a numbers guy. Never was. Big problem.
The operative question regarding the deal generally is – who’s the gamer hiding what?
And WHY is it conceivably happening?
Maybe even how.
Emanual should go for it! Become the next “Most Powerful Man in Hollywood!” The next “UberAgent!” The next “Major Play-ah!” The next…The next… Look what happened to Ovitz!
As music CD and singles sales have declined, touring revenues have picked way up so the future profitability for music (read: WMA) looks good. Television packaging (read: Endeavor), on the other hand, is on its way out. Talk to any network president and they’ll tell you that they just can’t afford millions in recurring packaging fees to agencies, not with everything moving online and TV-on-DVD sales declining. Endeavor appears to have the upper hand only on the force of Ari’s personality but in truth, their agency’s bread-and-butter revenues will not last long into the future. Fortunately, Jim Wiatt will never figure any of this out, he’ll do the merger to increase his perception as a player, and my next deal with DevMo will be more favorable to me, we’ll get better terms at lower cost.
William Morris isn’t as bad as most posters are making them out to be.
Personally, I still think their talent side, while abysmal at the moment, is more a reflection of the ebbs and flows of a fickle business further exacerbated by structural issues – many of which will be eliminated with the move to the new building.
While I’m not at all discounting that their talent department has some dead weight and personnel problems – don’t all agencies? Granted, Wiatt seems slower with the ax than his peers – Berg, Emmanuel, etc. – but it hardly seems like WMA’s talent business is completely
Lets not forget some of the shrewder plays WMA made in the last two years which haven’t even paid their full dividends:
1) Acquiring Limato for what seems like a revenue zero sum game (the balance sheet tells the true story). It added needed prestige to the department with some legendary marque names (Denzel, Steve Martin, etc) – who frankly make enough money to cover Limato, his cadre of assistants, and his impeccable matching clothing ensembles. Plus, he’s an invaluable resource in getting some of their rag tag list of young agents access where they couldn’t – few in town don’t call Ed back.
2) Creating a children’s youth theatrical division of Bonnie Liedtke and Thor Bradwell, chalk full of developmental young talents. A shrewd move still to pay dividends in the years to come.
3) Moving more and more toward leveraging the full service capabilities of an agency as wide reaching as WMA – with books, music, NY theater, branding, packaging, unscripted TV, new media.
4) Freed up a lot of capital with the sale of real estate.
Frankly, so much has been made of the music division, when fact is they still have the top agents in many other areas, particularly packaging with Cassian Elwes.
If this deal falls apart, WMA will be fine… they’re set up better for a Theatrical Department resurgence than you might think, and yes, the department will get worse before it gets better, but I believe after they move into their new building (rather than the labyrinth they are housed in now) communication will improve and much needed upgrades will occur, vaulting their Theatrical department from 5th or 6th among agencies to 3rd or 4th (and profitability) in the span of 6 years.
A wealthy man leaves his wealth-trappings and belongings in search of shangri-la. He takes only the essntial in a nap sack. He travels aound the world only to find he has that same deepening feeling that he has been here before. Where could shangri-la be, he thinks to himself.
He needs to take a leek and leaves his nap sack by the side of the road.while he enters the brush. When he returns his napsack is gone and he goes in pursuit of his only belongings. Tears streaming down his face. His search, even takes him to the nearest town. Paniced, he cannot find his napsack. He returns to where he left it only to find it against a tree he anxiously rustles through the contents and finds that everything is there. He sits in the shade,.shangri-la he thinks. One might wonder, of the wm/end dance-will it be shangri-la or reveries of things past.
Mall Rat, I’d ask you to snatch the pebble from my hand but I haven’t washed my hands since taking my latest whiz!
Oh look! Purell in my knap sack. Just where I left it.
So sayeth the Tree Surgeon.
Comparing the deal to Proust or Boost – good one.
Not!
My advice: Tuck it in your pants and get it done. It’s beneficial to both. Don’t let ego trump wisdom.
Unless Wyatt steps aside, with his little buddy, Dave, this merger can’t happen. There will be too much pressure to succeed to spend any time worry about governance and to make excuses for Jim and his crew. The haves at WMA need to come together and push for the merger and for the immediate exit of those who are getting in the way. I know you can do it WMA, think about your future if you don’t.
Christian Muirhead (WMA’s PR Flack) has done a great job masquarading as RH. The company is in the shitter. Wiatt – take note: this is your legacy. You and your cronies are laughed at.
WM has long had “structural issues,” none of which can be fixed by a magical “new building.” The wrong agents were sheltered and advanced into leadership positions without learning anything. They’ve lead many promising clients into dead-ends, like misfired Oscar-bait, TV commercial voice-overs and horror movies.
The irony is, without the current turmoil, these “wrong agents” would have made it to retirement or escaped safely into production deals. What will the Industry look like after all this dead wood has burned?
What this town needs is an enema.
RH aka Christian Muirhead is in waaaaaay over his head on this one… I think he was an assistant at Warner before this… time for a crisis management plan, either way WMA will need it.
But otherwise, good luck and hope there are no unnecessary layoffs!
By hiring a Crisis Management PR Team, wouldn’t that admit that their is a crisis? JW, DZW and Irv would never allow their egos to do this.
WMA’s feature dept is legit… and frankly has more grownups in the bunch (ie signerd), then END’s feature dept. When was the last time Tom Strickler signed anything other then END’s dry cleaning bills?
Madame Curie is absolutely spot on…