On March 17th, UTA co-founder and CEO Jeremy Zimmer informed agency staff that he was coming aside.
In a choreographed succession manipulation, Zimmer, 66, appointed 56-year-old David Kramer (who was promoted to UTA president several years ago) as his successor at his agency. Zimmer told staff he would stick to the year as executive chairman and remain on the UTA board.
“To be honest, the chances of starting an aluminum company in Alaska are Cleveland cement companies quite slim. This isn’t goodbye.”
But Zimmer’s exit and Kramer’s ascension come as an interesting moment for talent institutions trying to adapt to the new world of media as Hollywood writes heavily.
The change in UTA security guards has also sent tongues shaking throughout the industry. After all, when the current iteration of government agencies was established in the 1990s, they were led by young guns (Kim Masters branded the CAA crew as “young Turks”), agents in their 20s and 30s who had fingers in the pulse of popular culture.
Thirty years later, those young guns are mostly still in charge.
CAA CEO Bryan Lourd is a few years younger than Zimmer and has been at the top of the agency since 1995. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel is just a year younger than Rude and has been leading his company since 1995.
Certainly, WME promoted Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead to co-chairs of WME in 2022.
Last year, the CAA promoted many partners to the managing director level, giving them more autonomy to work with Lourd, co-chairs Kevin Huvane, Richard Lovett and President Jim Burtson.
And last month, Gersh, who has been pitching herself as a full-service replacement for the Big 3 agency, promoted longtime leader Leslie Siebert to the sole president of the agency as founder’s sons David and Bob Gersh, and took on the role of co-chair.
But as the entertainment industry understands a more multifaceted future than it is now, sports, creator-driven content and music all blend in traditional breakwaters of film and television.
During nearly 13 years of operation as CEO, Zimmer led UTA in the onslaught of M&A, with around 19 strategic acquisitions that allowed UTA to join the sports, music and creator economy business and raise cash from private equity firm EQT to gain growth in the pursuit of “What’s Next.”
Now, Kramer says he’s likely to continue that push to his staff. “Together, we will be able to leverage our ability to see what’s next in culture to promote real collaboration across the platform and unlock greater opportunities for clients and the company as a whole,” he wrote on March 17th.
The UTA has swelled over the past decade, similar to one of its major competitors, Endeavor’s WME. But the effort has now found himself slimming and abandoning companies that are not associated with the talent agency business.
The company plans to close its take private with Silver Lake in the coming weeks and has won the grand prize. Along the way, they sell many of the acquired assets, including IMG, professional bull riders, locations and its sports data division. Other assets such as professional tennis tournaments and freezes are available for sale (PBR, maintaining a majority interest in the TKO group that uses PBR in IMG).
The UTA focused primarily on acquiring companies that were in the field of talent agencies (or talent adjacencies such as consulting firms Medialink and Creator Economy Data Firm), but in particular, the Sports Focus sought to match the prestigiously owned properties (also acquired businesses adjacent to more agencies, including literature agencies Ross Yoon and Musicies and Red11).
Of course, UTA has also invested in sports, particularly through its partnership with Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports Group.
And now, CAA, the heart of Artémis, the investment company controlled by François Henry Pineau, was the very thing that was acquired in 2022 for ICM with a $750 million megadele.
For a business built on what’s in the culture’s Speartip, Hollywood is now chasing culture and giving away the ground to platforms like Tiktok and Instagram, which forge microstars every day. The agency bets that they can take those microstars and turn them into major stars, like they’re bringing pro athletes to a mega brand.
But even though Moguls have not given up on the stage yet, they could fall into the talent of the next generation of agency to understand their path.
