Several private equity firms and Hollywood power players, including United Talent Agency and longtime agent Patrick Whitesell, have expressed interest in buying parts of Casey Wasserman\u2019s music and sports management firm after it abruptly went up for sale. <\/p>\n
Wasserman became ensnared in controversy earlier this year<\/a> after his salacious decades-old emails to Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, an accomplice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, were released as part of the U.S. Justice Department\u2019s trove of Epstein files. <\/p>\n The agency auction is in the early stages, according to three people close to the process but not authorized to comment. <\/p>\n Earlier this week, several interested parties submitted proposals to meet a preliminary deadline in the auction, two of the sources said.<\/p>\n The company, which changed its name to the Team last month<\/a>, is expected to be valued at around $3 billion. <\/p>\n Providence Equity Partners holds the majority stake. The private equity firm has discussed selling the entire company or carving off Wasserman\u2019s minority interest. Providence also has considered selling the bulk of the firm and staying on as a minority investor, one of the sources said. Another scenario could involve separating, then selling the individual business units that make up the Team.<\/p>\n Wasserman and Providence\u2019s company boasts an enviable roster of music artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. Its sports marketing practice is viewed as particularly lucrative and has potential to grow in value as big dollars flow into sports that draw large crowds. <\/p>\n Wasserman, who declined to comment, has a veto right over any sale of the company that he has spent a quarter of a century building.<\/p>\n UTA, which also declined to comment, is among the most aggressive suitors, the sources said. The Team\u2019s sports marketing and music representation divisions would dramatically boost the Beverly Hills agency\u2019s profile and client roster. <\/p>\n Whitesell, former executive chairman of Endeavor, separately has been motivated to make investments in sports, media and entertainment since last year when he left the talent agency<\/a> that he and Ari Emanuel built. Whitesell launched a new firm with seed money from private equity firm Silver Lake, and last spring he started WIN Sports Group to represent professional football players<\/a>. <\/p>\n Whitesell wasn\u2019t immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n European investment firm Permira also has expressed interest<\/a>, according to a knowledgeable source. Permira declined to comment.<\/p>\n The New York Times first reported<\/a> that Permira, UTA and Whitesell had expressed interest.<\/p>\n The sales process is expected to stretch into summer, the knowledgeable people said. The auction could become complicated particularly if Providence decides to unwind the business.<\/p>\n For example, UTA could not buy the entire company because of the Brillstein television unit. The agency is bound by an agreement with the Writers Guild of America<\/a> that prevents it from owning television production.<\/p>\n Investment bank Moelis & Company is managing the sale. A representative of the firm declined comment.<\/p>\n Wasserman<\/a> also is the chairman of LA28, the nonprofit group that will be staging the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in two years.<\/p>\n Following revelations of Wasserman\u2019s 2003 emails with Maxwell, several musicians and athletes \u2014 led by pop artist Chappell Roan<\/a> and soccer star Abby Wambach \u2014 said that, to stay true to their values<\/a>, they would leave the agency then known as Wasserman.<\/p>\n Wasserman apologized to his staff for \u201cpast personal mistakes\u201d and said he would sell the agency. <\/p>\n He had limited dealings with Epstein, flying on the financier\u2019s jet along with former President Clinton for a September 2002 humanitarian trip through Africa.<\/a> <\/p>\n Wasserman, a prolific Clinton fundraiser whose legendary grandfather, Hollywood titan Lew Wasserman, helped the Democrat win the 1992 presidential election, was joined on Epstein\u2019s jet by his then-wife, Laura, actor Kevin Spacey, Epstein, Maxwell \u2014 who was convicted of sexual abuse<\/a> in 2021 \u2014 and others, including security agents.<\/p>\n The LA28 board\u2019s executive committee unanimously voted to keep Wasserman as chairman<\/a>, citing his \u201cstrong leadership\u201d of the Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several private equity firms and Hollywood power players, including United Talent Agency and longtime agent Patrick Whitesell, have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4742,1804,34573,7172,77056,27536,48,52,51,47,50,49,56920,5589,120430,6708,120431,77169,77055,120429,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-279478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-agency","9":"tag-company","10":"tag-epstein-file","11":"tag-firm","12":"tag-ghislaine-maxwell","13":"tag-interest","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news","20":"tag-providence","21":"tag-sale","22":"tag-several-private-equity-firm","23":"tag-source","24":"tag-sport-marketing-practice","25":"tag-uta","26":"tag-wasserman","27":"tag-whitesell","28":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}