CAA-ICM Merger to Result in 105 Layoffs

More than 100 employees will be laid off as a result of the merger between Hollywood talent giants CAA and ICM Partners, Variety has learned.

It is expected that 425 employees will make the transition from ICM to CAA, resulting in a combined staff total of approximately 3,200 employees at the supersized CAA. Meanwhile, 105 current ICM employees will be laid off following the close of the transaction.

CAA and ICM announced the deal, valued at $750 million, had been finalized Tuesday, 10 months after the Hollywood talent agencies first revealed the acquisition plans in September 2021.

The agreement marks the largest talent agency transaction since WME acquired IMG in 2014 and Endeavor joined forces with William Morris Agency in 2009, which forged the contemporary WME. It also reduces the competition among the mega agency playing field, with the Big Four of CAA, ICM, WME and UTA being reduced to the Big Three of CAA, WME and UTA.

CAA and ICM have expressed a similar ethos in recent years about keeping a tight focus on talent representation matters rather than expanding into new businesses and teaming on projects and business development with clients. CAA was the first of the large Hollywood agencies to branch out into corporate marketing and other areas of activity outside of the core Hollywood movie and TV business in the 1990s. But in recent years, CAA’s focus has honed to entertainment and sports, fueled by private equity investment from the company that is now CAA’s majority shareholder, TPG.

CAA and ICM were formed the same year, in 1975, amid another period of turmoil in the agency arena. International Creative Management was formed out of the merger of Creative Management Associates and International Famous Agency. CAA was launched by Mike Ovitz, Ron Meyer and a handful of other William Morris Agency reps who famously opted to plant their own flag.

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