It’s not the Villain of the Year award, but it’s a no less prestigious honor: This year’s inaugural Scrooge of the Year award goes to CAA leaders Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, and Kevin Huvane.
The CAA leaders Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, and Kevin Huvane—along with their majority owners at private equity firm TPG—pulled off a coup in getting French billionaire François-Henri Pinault to buy out TPG’s stake in a deal that valued the agency at more than $7 billion. But that astronomical number made it all the more frustrating for CAA agents and employees—past and present—when they were told that the leadership would only let them cash in 10 percent of their equity in the company. Some of these agents have been waiting decades for a significant transaction, but because their shares were not sold—Pinault bought TPG’s stake in the agency, but not all of CAA—they were largely left out of a deal that has generated phenomenal wealth for, you guessed it, Lourd, Lovett, and Huvane. (TPG is an investor in Puck.)
It’s not unusual for a new majority shareholder to want to keep its employees incentivized for an even larger outcome, and CAA is said to have taken care of a few key people. But good luck to agents who think another big deal could be on the horizon. The agency is now controlled by a family office, and unlikely to be sold again for a long time (though Pinault may eventually buy out individual shares, especially if the principals ever sell out).
But this leaves agents in a tight spot. Per the terms of CAA employment agreements, those who defect to a rival company forfeit their equity or risk ending up in a legal dispute, like the CAA defectors who became managers at Range Media. This outcome, along with strike-impacted bonuses, has left a bunch of CAA’s finest fuming at their bosses this holiday season.
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