Creative Artists Agency is instituting a round of layoffs, according to an insider with knowledge of the company. The staff reductions, which will impact 60 people across multiple departments, are expected early next week — CAA has thousands of employees.
Ongoing labor stoppages, including the SAG-AFTRA strike which began in mid-July, have continued to have an impact on talent agencies and management companies. TheWrap has been told that the layoffs are not related to the strike and come out of an examination of staffing levels that started months ago, before the WGA strike began on May 2. But the impact of the strikes can’t be ignored — rival agency WME’s CEO Ari Emanuel said earlier this week that the strikes are costing Endeavor $25 million a month.
These layoffs arrive just after the one-year anniversary of the CAA acquisition of ICM Partners, which took place in late June 2022 — the merger resulted in 105 jobs being eliminated at the time. The merger between the two 46-year rivals left just three major talent agencies in Hollywood: WME, CAA and UTA. The deal also marked the largest acquisition of its kind since WMA and Endeavor merged in 2009 and WME acquired the sports marketing giant IMG in 2014.
Meanwhile, CAA may end up being sold to French luxury and fashion mogul Francois-Henri Pinault, who has reportedly been in ongoing discussions to buy a majority stake in the agency for $7 billion.
CAA, which was founded in 1975, is backed by private equity group TPG Capital, which acquired a 35% stake in the talent agency in 2010. In 2014, CAA and TPG agreed to a deal that boosted the latter’s ownership stake to 53%. In 2021, CAA acquired rival ICM Partners for $750 million. The high-powered agency represents high-profile clients including Tom Hanks, Zendaya, Steven Spielberg, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Pinault’s wife Salma Hayek.
