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Reps for both agencies meet again this afternoon for a pivotal confab.
From what I’m told, the merger hangs on not just WMA CEO Jim Wiatt behaving but on the numbers disclosed. Do they make sense? Do the rewards outweigh the risks? Is more financial information needed? Is enough being provided?
UPDATE: Endeavor just signed its 3rd WMA client this month — director Rod Lurie. I can’t fathom why any agency would be interested in this nasty piece of work who has hopscotched from APA, to WMA, to now ETA. My theory is that Endeavor now is just taunting Morris.
Endeavor-WMA Merger Hangs By Thread: Stop Or Go Decision Thursday
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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These mergers are usually great for the people at the very top and terrible for absolutely everyone else, including clients. Which is probably why it will happen. I hope it doesn’t.
Yea you’re right. It will mean more layoffs at both companies.
THURSDAY PM UPDATE: Rainn Wilson and Sean Hayes did a so-so Abbott & Costello routine during the lunch break. Irv Weintraub laughed his ass off, while Ari rolled his eyes and said “didnt we fire those guys?”
@Josh is right. That’s the type of business thinking that created this economic mess. Nothing changes. Boys suck at business. They’re all too worried if the other guy has a bigger one to make rational long term decisions.
WMA has so many useless agents and executives so Endeavor will have to slash WMA’s numbers by more than half for the deal to make sense. The first guy to get rid of in this deal, if it happens, is John Fogelman. He is totally useless and adds no value. Also what happens to the free gas and car washes for agents at WMA if the merger happens…hate to give up that perk!
isn’t it possible wma are sending the clients to endeavor? i think this is the 4th client
If the merger does not go through at this point, not only are Endeavor and WMA weakened perception-wise (having disclosed their respective companies weaknesses in various divisions), but UTA is greatly disappointed, having invested in the notion that the proposed merger will make them the viable “service-oriented alternative” and the only agency still in play if someone wants to win the CAA-Endeavor/WMA war. This all would have been so much easier if UTA had just merged with Endeavor two years ago…..
“Bad boys, bad boys….whatcha gonna do?”
Rod Lurie is a man of integrity and decency, a real class act. I don’t know where that little jab about him is coming form, but it’s way off base and a cheap shot.