Casey Wasserman is putting his namesake talent agency up for sale. The move comes after documents linking him to Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell triggered significant backlash from the company’s clients and staff.<\/p>\n
The sale was first reported<\/a> by The Wall Street Journal <\/i>on Friday (February 13), citing a memo to staff.<\/p>\n Wasserman, grandson of entertainment mogul Lew<\/b> Wasserman<\/b>, built Wasserman Age<\/b>ncy<\/strong> into one of Hollywood’s largest sports-marketing and talent-management firms with roughly 4,000<\/b> employees, according to the WSJ.<\/i><\/p>\n Wasserman told employees in the memo that he had “become a distraction” and would hand over control to longtime executive Mike<\/b> Watts<\/b>. He apologized for “past personal mistakes” and emphasized his focus on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Backer Providence Equity Partners<\/b> also said it is committed to keeping the company afloat while it assesses options. Providence first made a strategic investment<\/a> in Wasserman Agency in 2022.<\/p>\n A spokesman for Providence\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Variety,\u00a0<\/em>which reports that Providence has since become the majority owner of the agency,\u00a0<\/em>\u201cwe believe deeply in the strength of the company and have full confidence in Mike and the leadership team, as well as in the exceptional employees across the organization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe remain fully committed to investing in its growth, expanding its capabilities across sports, music, and entertainment, and supporting the extraordinary talent, brands and properties the company is proud to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n Providence Equity (via variety)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The statement continued: \u201cWe remain fully committed to investing in its growth, expanding its capabilities across sports, music, and entertainment, and supporting the extraordinary talent, brands and properties the company is proud to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversy stemmed from the recent release of US Department of Justice documents that revealed correspondence between Wasserman and Maxwell,\u00a0who was sentenced<\/a>\u00a0in 2022 to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to abuse minors. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019, one month after being indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n The documents also reveal that Wasserman and his then-wife flew on Epstein’s jet<\/a> in 2002 to Africa, where they were joined by former President Bill Clinton<\/b>. Wasserman acknowledged the 2002 flight, but said he had \u201cnever had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d according to the WSJ. <\/i>In the memo, Wasserman said the trip occurred \u201cyears before their criminal conduct came to light.\u201d<\/p>\n The executive told employees that he was \u201cheartbroken that my brief contact with them 23 years ago has caused you, this company, and its clients so much hardship over the past days and weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Wasserman also serves as chairman of the LA28 organising committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The WSJ <\/i>said<\/a> the LA28 board hired outside counsel to review Wasserman\u2019s interactions and found they “did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.” The board voted<\/a> unanimously this week to keep him as chairman.<\/p>\n A number of prominent clients have already left Wasserman Agency in recent days, including Grammy-winning pop artist Chappell Roan<\/strong><\/a>. Roan said: \u201cArtists deserve representation that aligns with their values and supports their safety and dignity. This decision reflects my belief that meaningful change in our industry requires accountability and leadership that earns trust.\u201d<\/p>\n Wasserman Music\u00a0launched in April 2021<\/a>\u00a0with the acquisition of\u00a0Paradigm<\/a>\u2019s North American live music representation business.<\/p>\n Other acts to speak out against Wasserman include Dropkick<\/b> Murphys<\/b>, indie rock band Beach Bunny<\/b>, singer-songwriter Bethany Cosentino<\/b>, alt-pop singer Chelsea Cutler<\/b>, country artist Orville Peck<\/b>, EDM producer Salute<\/b>, alt band Water From Your Eyes<\/b>, indie rock band Wednesday<\/b>, and indie pop artist Weyes Blood.<\/b><\/p>\n Variety <\/i>said the situation puts pressure on high-profile clients at Wasserman-owned Brillstein Entertainment Partners<\/b>, which recently added Emma Ston<\/b>e<\/strong> and Sydney<\/b> Sweeney<\/b>.<\/p>\n Wasserman has not been accused of any illegal activity in connection with the Epstein documents.<\/p>\n A top Hollywood dealmaker told Variety: <\/i>\u201cHe hasn\u2019t violated any law that we know of. But when you couple this with the scandal from a year ago, you see a pattern of behavior. The sleaze factor is too high, and no client wants to be near that.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024,\u00a0Billie Eilish<\/b>\u00a0left<\/a> Wasserman Music for rival agency\u00a0William Morris Endeavor<\/b>\u00a0(WME) in the wake of a tabloid scandal surrounding Casey Wasserman. An August 1, 2024\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/i>\u00a0described Casey Wasserman as a \u201cserial cheater\u201d. The\u00a0Mail<\/i>\u00a0said it had 11 unnamed sources for the report, \u201cincluding some of [Wasserman\u2019s] mistresses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wasserman backer Providence Equity Partners says it ‘remain[s] fully committed’ to the agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":251168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[135052,133198,135061,132110,135062],"class_list":["post-251143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-casey-wasserman","tag-chappell-roan","tag-providence-equity","tag-providence-equity-partners","tag-wasserman-agency"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251143"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251221,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251143\/revisions\/251221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n