LOS ANGELES, Saturday, October 2nd 2010 [ME NewsWire]:
(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the world’s leading entertainment and sports agency, announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with global private investment firm TPG Capital. TPG has invested an undisclosed sum for a non-controlling 35% interest in the agency.
Additionally, CAA and TPG have committed to create a $500 million pledge fund, providing access to significant capital for future investments. TPG has more than $47 billion under management.
“CAA is the clear leader within its industry and the talent agency most trusted by successful actors, directors, writers, producers, musicians and athletes,” said David Bonderman, TPG Founding Partner. “Over its history, the company has demonstrated a consistent ability to identify nascent opportunities and expand into new markets. CAA’s outstanding management team has built the gold-standard franchise in their industry based on a culture of exceptional client service, and we look forward to supporting CAA at this exciting inflection point in their evolution as they look to expand their operations and services around the globe.”
In a statement, the CAA Managing Partners said, “CAA exists for one reason – our clients. Our new relationship with TPG will help us continue to build momentum in the work we do for clients every day. With TPG’s experience and resources, this could be accomplished through capital investments that build upon our full-service platform, new business leads developed through TPG’s extensive worldwide relationships, expert insight on the international marketplace, and a myriad of other ways.”
The managing partners have made long-term commitments to continue leading the agency.
CAA President Richard Lovett added, “We have known and respected the leaders of TPG for a long time, and believe this strategic partnership marks a new starting point for the agency’s future.”
In recent years, anticipating the significant technological and market changes that have impacted the entertainment and media industries, CAA strategically expanded into complementary new businesses and added extensive resources to deepen its unique, 360-degree approach to servicing clients. As a result, CAA has developed profitable new divisions while continuing to expand the role of talent representation.
CAA entered the sports business in 2006 and within two years was recognized by leading industry trade publication Sports Business Journal as “the dominant sports agency in the United States.” Today, it represents more than 650 of the world’s most important athletes, coaches, broadcasters, teams, leagues, venues and marketers, from Derek Jeter, Shaun White, Novak Djokovic, and Cristiano Ronaldo, to the New York Yankees, Chelsea FC, and the NCAA’s Pacific-10 Conference. CAA Sports won the highly-coveted assignments to sell major, multi-year corporate partnerships for the new Yankee Stadium and the soon-to-be renovated Madison Square Garden, and has since closed nearly 20 such deals.
In 2008, in partnership with the former team from Merrill Lynch’s Media and Sports Structured Finance Group, CAA created an investment bank that has since raised or advised on more than $2 billion in media and sports transactions. The bank, Evolution Media Capital (EMC), has been at the center of many significant deals, from capital raising and structuring, to broadcast rights negotiations and stadium financing, to mergers and acquisitions. Among many other transactions, it represented the successful buyers of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers; structured Sony ATV’s $300 million of debt financing for its 50% ownership of the Beatles library; advised on the establishment of animation film studio Illumination, which recently released the film “Despicable Me,” earning $344 million at the box office to date; raised and structured the debt for a $245 million film fund for Participant Productions; raised $100 million for a National Geographic film fund; and conducted the sale of Authentic Entertainment, a CAA client and leading television production company, to media entity Endemol.
The agency also has grown internationally, with a presence around the world, including offices in London and China, where CAA represents the top entertainment talent in one of the world’s fastest growing economies. CAA developed a digital media practice that creates new opportunities for clients within this emerging marketplace, represents technology companies like Cisco and IMAX, and incubates Internet companies, including FunnyOrDie.com, the leading destination for comedy on the web, with more than 24 million video views per month. CAA Marketing serves clients such as Coca-Cola, Dell, and Mattel, and CAA Games represents the world’s top game designers with total sales exceeding $8 billion.
Lazard Freres & Co., LLC and Rothschild Inc. served as financial advisors to CAA. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal counsel to CAA. Credit Suisse was financial advisor to TPG. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Loeb & Loeb served as legal counsel to TPG.
About Creative Artists Agency
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is the world’s leading entertainment and sports agency, representing many of the most successful professionals working in film, television, music, sports, video games, theatre, and the Internet, and provides a range of strategic marketing and consulting services to corporate clients.
About CAA Sports
CAA Sports represents more than 650 of the world’s top athletes and professionals in football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, action sports, coaching and broadcasting, and advises many leading sports organizations on sponsorship deals, venue marketing partnerships, corporate consulting, and major financial and media rights transactions through its partnership with CAA’s affiliate investment bank Evolution Media Capital. The division has more than 100 employees with executives and player agents based in numerous international territories, including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, Japan, and Israel.
For more information, please visit www.sports.caa.com.
About TPG Capital
TPG Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms with more than $47 billion of assets under management together with affiliates and offices in San Francisco, Beijing, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG Capital has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, growth investments, joint ventures and restructurings. TPG Capital’s investments span a variety of industries including media and communications, travel and entertainment, retail, consumer, healthcare, technology, financial services and industrials.
For media enquiries, please contact:
For CAA:
Michael Mand, CAA
424-288-2000
mmand@caa.com
For TPG:
Lisa Baker, Owen Blicksilver PR
914-725-5949
lisa@blicksilverpr.com
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