“This is all anyone is talking about,” says a veteran Hollywood player of the impending sale of Casey Wasserman‘s on-the-block talent management and marketing company.
Insiders say that the deal for Wasserman’s firm, now known as “The Team,” could wrap up in the next two weeks.
“There are less contenders than normal, since anyone that buys this can’t buy a sports team, and that eliminates a lot of big names,” says an industry insider.
Patrick Whitesell, former executive chairman of Endeavor. Getty Images Outfits in the running still include former Endeavor executive chairman Patrick Whitesell’s WIN Sports Group. Sources tell us that there is one version in which Whitesell buys Wasserman’s 25% ownership stake in the company which he founded in 2002 (Rhode Island based Providence Equity Partners owns 60% while The Team’s management owns the remaining 15%). We also hear that Whitesell has engaged Steven Klinsky’s New Mountain Capital to help finance his bid although a source close to Whitesell says that the former superagent’s firm is exploring multiple options and multiple partners in structuring a potential deal.
We reported previously back in March that UTA boss David Kramer has a “make-of-break” decision to acquire Wasserman and jolt the town’s third place agency in the “Big Three” onto equal footing with WME. UTA is exploring the Wasserman buy with the backing of EQT. But a source warns, “EQT has already put a lot of money into UTA.” The agency already has stakes in KLUTCH Sports, Digital Brand Architects, UK-based music outfit The Agency Group, lit agency Curtis Brown Group, European soccer agency ROOF and, infamously, Michael Kassan’s advisory firm MediaLink.
Sources tell us that there is one version in which Whitesell buys Wasserman’s 25% ownership stake in the company which he founded in 2002. Getty Images for Endeavor Meanwhile, “CAA and WME cannot engage because they’re conflicted,” says a source. “The justice department would never allow it. It’s too close to a monopoly.”
The Ankler reported this week that additional firms exploring a deal also include Excel Sports Management and Goldman Sachs and a number of PE firms. But our source says that outside of UTA, Whitesell and Goldman Sachs: “The other players are random people kicking tires or are full of s–t.” Providence could also potentially step in and make a play to buy Wasserman’s shares as part of a larger deal.
