The actress who plays “Barbie” and countless other stars, directors, and writers may need to learn French soon. According to Bloomberg News, Fort Worth-based private equity firm TPG is in talks to sell its majority stake in Hollywood agency CAA to French fashion tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault for $7 billion.
Pinault is chairman and CEO of the luxury fashion group Kering—which owns brands including Gucci and Bottega Veneta—and president of its holding company, Groupe Artémis. (He’s also married to Hollywood star Salma Hayek, who, perhaps not coincidentally, is a CAA client.)
While the acquisition talks are in an advanced stage, the deal’s outcome isn’t certain at this point, Bloomberg said in its report. The news comes in the wake of the Screen Actors Guild going on strike, joining the Writers Guild of America in a major shutdown of Hollywood film production and promotion.
TPG’s majority stake in CAA
TPG acquired a 35% stake in CAA back in 2010, Bloomberg reports, growing its share in 2014 to a majority 53% stake, which at the time valued the agency at $1.1 billion. In 2021, CAA acquired the Hollywood agency ICM Partners, further increasing CAA’s value.
CAA became a Hollywood kingmaker by ‘packaging’ motion pictures
CAA, or the Creative Artists Agency, was founded by Hollywood titan Michael Ovitz in 1975 along with Ron Meyer and other partners. It has long been a kingmaker in Hollywood. In the late 1970s, Ovitz pioneered the concept of “packaging” motion pictures, in which an agency takes the lead in attaching its own actors, directors, and writers to a project so the bulk of the agency and management fees all come back to it. This moved a lot of the power in Hollywood from the studios to top agencies like CAA. (Full disclosure: This writer is a former CAA client.)
You can read the Bloomberg report by going here.
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