They’ve got Hollywood right where they want it: “Parasite,” Endeavor’s scripted division, is being acquired by Endeavor Content, the company announced today.
The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the founders of Endeavor Content say it is a win-win.
“Endeavor content, our founders, the content that they bring, we’re just incredibly excited to continue to have that relationship with,” Ryan Kavanaugh said in an interview with reporters at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena on January 25.
“We see Endeavor content as a growth engine for the company,” added Endeavor Content CEO Ari Emanuel. “A company that we don’t even have to pretend to own part of anymore.”
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Also not disclosed: whom, exactly, Endeavor Content will be acquiring from Endeavor.
Deals between talent agencies and studios are often wrought with shady relationships. As late as May 2017, it was revealed that CAA and Sony Pictures “mistakenly” stole money earmarked for Matthew McConaughey in a film that never quite got made.
“This is just a marriage of two companies and companies that understand how we need to think and talk about content differently,” says Emanuel. “We don’t need to separate studios from talent agencies and talent agencies from production companies, the way that the traditional TV world did.”
Now Endeavor is hoping to distribute “whatever content comes in our pipeline…in whatever digital and new and fast and liquid space that they feel most best fits in our company,” he added.
What that means remains to be seen, but the logical assumption is that Endeavor will be powering up the digital channels around Endeavor Content’s slate.
Other aspects of the deal have yet to be explored. Emanuel says negotiations with the end rungs of Endeavor’s distribution organization will be ongoing.
For his part, Kavanaugh was coy about what Endeavor Content’s anticipated costs for the acquisition might be, but he said it wasn’t a figure that the company had targeted at the outset.
“My short answer is: I have no idea,” he said. “I’m not going to figure it out yet. That’s the obvious advantage of this transaction.”