There’s one thing you can say for the entertainment industry- it’s never static. This week we saw the news that CAA will be adding another arm to its entertainment-focused empire with CAA Evolution, an advisory firm and investment bank looking to work in the media, entertainment, and sport space. Blake & Wang P.A.’s Brandon Blake, our local entertainment lawyers in USA, unpacks this new development.
Brandon Blake
More M&A Action
The new entity sees the combination of the CAA’s existing merchant bank, Evolution Media Capital, with their recently-acquired boutique strategic advisory firm, M. Klein & Company. With almost 60 employees, it will be based out of London, LA, and New York.
This new creation will greatly expand the CAA’s existing footprint in both capital raises and media rights deals. They will be focusing on fund/capital formation services and IPOs while offering access to institutional capital sources. Additionally, with M. Klein & Company in their stable, they will be offering advisory services for talent sourcing, PR/IR management, and board dispute resolution. Add the nebulous ‘evaluating unsolicited offers’ to that, too.
Expansion and Focus
The latter is most definitely an expansion on the 35-year strong footprint M. Klein & Company has already been offering. They will additionally continue to operate as a stand-alone business across other (non-entertainment) industrial sectors. We’ve already seen Evolution Media Capital active in the sports media space, too, primarily focusing on the development of streaming and digital strategies for this expanding entertainment space.
The core CAA business has also seen some transformation this year, with a majority stake selling at a cool $7B to luxury goods billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. With plenty of experience from both sides, and an expanded stable to focus on, there’s plenty to look forward to from CAA Evolution, and we expect to see them rise as a major player (or rather, more major) over the next few years.
Film and Television 