The joint venture formed in 2016 by CAA and the Global Brands Group has now been taken over fully by CAA. This deal will see CAA take a direct role in managing licensing programs and brand marketing for a variety of clients, including Formula One, Playboy, Coca-Cola, and Netflix. Blake & Wang P.A’s Brandon Blake fills in the details of this intriguing new development in the entertainment landscape for us.
Brandon Blake
Original Joint Venture
When the joint venture launched, CAA owned just 27.3% of the whole. However, with Global Brands announcing a wind-down of operations due to liquidity shortfalls last year, the joint venture will now be led entirely by CAA and brought in-house. How much they’ve paid for the privilege has yet to be revealed.
CAA co-chairman, Keven Huvane, seems keen to celebrate bringing the expertise into their ever-growing stable of interests. This is, of course, only one of many aggressive acquisitions we’ve seen from CAA in the last year. They’ve also brought ICM Partners into the fold, although that deal is still under scrutiny by US regulators. Tandem Entertainment was also a major 2021 acquisition in the creative partnership/marketing space for them.
TPG Goes Public
TPG, the private equity giant which is CAA’s majority owner, also went public through an IPO last year. Some speculate this could mean that it is intending to spin CAA off publicly, something their flurry of activity in the M&A space makes seem ever more likely. They’ve also been fairly aggressive in the acquisition of ‘Gen Z talent,’ from podcast properties to onboarding notable influencers and social media celebrities as clients.
Bringing their brand management arm into the day-to-day running of the firm will certainly create an interesting shift in the entertainment landscape- one this entertainment attorney will be watching with care going forward.
