By Ellen Cans
High-level executives and agents at Endeavor entertainment firm are looking to make an exit after the company’s initial public offering failed. As reported by the NY Post, Endeavor’s top employees have been sending out resumes to scores of competing Hollywood entertainment companies. Ari Emanuel’s Beverly Hills-based talent empire, founded in 1995, includes William Morris Endeavor and IMG Media talent agencies which represent top stars including Adam Sandler, Oprah Winfrey, Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, and Rihanna. The firm had high hopes for an IPO, which was looking to raise over $600 million, with execs foregoing large bonuses and instead accepting stock options. To the agents, bonuses can amount to as much as 70 percent of their total salary. Now, that the IPO was pulled out of the picture in September, the agents are looking to part ways and join other agencies. “A lot of WME agents are now in play. We are all talking to them,” said a rival agency source. “They are big agents, executives, department heads.”
Some sources even told that Post that Emanuel has been pushing stock options to agents in lieu of heavy bonuses as far back as 2014. The much anticipated payback was supposed to come this year, but weak demand sullied the IPO. “While electing not to move forward with the IPO was the right decision for the company, it’s understandable that some employees were disappointed that we didn’t list,” a company spokesman said. “Despite the IPO delay, 2019 was a record year for Endeavor, and we’re confident in our strategy moving forward.” The Post said top execs who are dissatisfied with the change of plans and looking to make a move may include IMG Media chairman Ioris Francini, and Jon Rosen, a WME board member, partner and head of the agency’s East Coast TV department as well as its branded lifestyle group. The two men did not answer requests for comment.
Emanuel has blamed the botched IPO on the generally sluggish market, in which other companies also had tanked valuations, including indoor bike company Peloton and ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft. Endeavor has even said it may rehash IPO efforts in January. Sources say Emanuel and Endeavor executive chairman Patrick Whitesell have been working hard to make it up to staffers. They even have a plan to allow staffers to sell up to 20 percent of their stock at markdown prices possibly as deep as 60 percent of the lowered pre-IPO valuation of $6.5 billion. The offer further angered staffers, many of whom are also tied into multiple year contracts without the option of switching firms.
“They were told ‘don’t worry about it. But they have been making less based on the premise of an IPO,” said one source. “They have been asking people to take a flat comp with the understanding that a big liquidity moment is coming.”
