If William Morris Agency and Endeavor, two of the biggest talent agencies in the US still aren’t on your radar, give this post a second of your time. The agencies are, according to DeadlineHollywoodDaily, set to merge after a late afternoon meeting today of both companies’ boards.
We’ve written about William Morris fairly extensively in the past. The shop is 118 years old and known throughout the talent industry as a mainstay. Their purported merger with 15 year-old Endeavor (whose co-founder Ari Emmanuel is spoofed by Jeremy Piven on HBO’s Entourage) is a big move that could have big implications for WMA’s corporate sponsorship department.
As we’ve said before, this department is the one that’s responsible for such pairings as GM with Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’. There’s a lot of money to be made in match-ups like that, and more than likely you’re missing out on them. Now is the time to snatch up the folks at WMA who may lose their jobs as a result of this merger.
According to Nikki Finke, who pens DHD, WMA is likely only to keep their literary and motion picture department. There’s no word yet on the remaining departments yet but this could be an opportunity for the right agency to bridge the entertainment gap and pick up some of the people who know how to make these deals. They’re basically media buys, if you think about it, and they’re simple in nature.
More: “Could a William Morris/Endeavor Merger Be Good for You?”