Flush With Private Equity Cash, Gersh Makes Overture to Verve

Borys Kit and Erik Hayden
·3 min read

On May 1, the Gersh agency took on an equity partner for the first time since its founding in 1949, selling a 45 percent stake to a New York-based financier, Crestview Partners, for an undisclosed sum. Now it’s figuring out what to do with that cash. Up first? Trying to buy a rival.

The Beverly Hills-based talent firm, run by co-presidents David and Bob Gersh and Leslie Siebert, is said to have approached literary agency Verve with an overture to talk, but was rebuffed, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Gersh insiders say that no meetings were had, or offers made, to Verve. A rep for Verve stated: “Gersh reached out a month ago to get together which we politely declined and there has been no further interaction or communication.”

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Verve, led by CEO Bill Weinstein since his promotion early this year, has looked to reach beyond its roots as a boutique literary agency. The firm — founded in 2010 by a trio of former WME agents, Bryan Besser, Adam Levine and Weinstein — expanded into talent representation in June 2020, right during the COVID-19 era production halts. It then added a New York location with an eye toward publishing and theater clients, snapped up Paul Alan Smith’s agency New Deal Mfg. Co., which focuses on TV directors, in 2021 and launched an audio division. In late May — weeks after the Writers Guild of America went on strike, including many of its clients — Verve laid off 60 percent of its assistants and three agents from its 52-agent roster.

While larger agencies always look for bolt-on acquisitions among boutiques, the past few years have seen major movement. The megadeal that arrived like a boulder in a lake was CAA’s bid for rival ICM, which closed in June 2022 with terms that valued ICM at $750 million. That deal (after it passed months of federal regulatory review) left only three major talent agencies standing in Hollywood: CAA, WME and UTA, all armed with private equity cash.

A tie-up with Verve was only one option bandied about at Gersh, as an insider says that the agency has an interest in investing in the live entertainment, sports and music representation segments (spaces in which Big 3 talent firms already have a foothold). “Everything is on the table, including companies in our ecosystem,” this source adds, describing Gersh as “in a growth phase” and “looking for opportunities.” (As of May, Gersh had 300 employees and 125 agents.)

It’s not alone in deal-hunting. This year, UTA nabbed New York-based literary agency Fletcher & Company and branched out to the executive search business with the acquisition of James & Co. Meanwhile, the Endeavor-owned WME waded into Washington, D.C., with a buy of literary agency Ross Yoon, bringing more author and journalist clients, and bulked up its touring revenue with the acquisition of Nashville-based Red 11 Music agency.

Smaller agencies have, in turn, had to scale up in order to tout themselves as full-service rivals to the Big 3. In June, mogul Ron Burkle oversaw the merger of two agencies that he’s financially backed — the rapidly expanding Agency for the Performing Arts and the touring firm Artist Group International — into the newly titled Independent Artist Group, led by APA chief Jim Osborne as CEO, who is aggressively working to challenge UTA. And, earlier this year, A3 Artists Agency, run by Adam Bold, had its outside counsel send letters of purchase inquiry to several rivals, including Verve. But it, too, was rebuffed in those overtures.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.