{"id":15847,"date":"2026-07-24T16:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T11:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15847"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T11:06:15","slug":"new-owner-may-be-same-as-the-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15847","title":{"rendered":"New Owner May Be Same As the Last"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/casey-wasserman\/\" id=\"auto-tag_casey-wasserman_1\" data-tag=\"casey-wasserman\">Casey Wasserman<\/a> may soon be no longer on The Team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter being pressured to set up an auction for his Westwood-based firm that drew interest from United Talent Agency, Patrick Whitesell\u2019s upstart shingle WIN and other suitors, the sale of his company may not go to any outside party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWasserman is in talks to sell his stake in the company to private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, Matthew Belloni <a rel=\"nofollow\" data-id=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/casey-wassermans-agency-the-team-has-found-a-buyer\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/casey-wassermans-agency-the-team-has-found-a-buyer\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> at Puck on Thursday. Providence had already taken a major stake in Wasserman in November 2022 to fuel growth at the company \u2014 notably, a major acquisition of Brillstein Entertainment less than a year later \u2014 so a buyout of the company\u2019s founder would keep the firm in the same strategic hands it had been in for the past several years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe news of a would-be deal breakthrough arrives three months after the first round of bids were submitted in April to investment bank Moelis &amp; Co, which handled the auction process. (The bank\u2019s leader, Ken Moelis, sits on Wasserman\u2019s LA28 Olympics Committee board).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tProvidence, a source previously <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/wasserman-music-sports-emails-maxwell-1236504511\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/wasserman-music-sports-emails-maxwell-1236504511\/\">told<\/a> <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, had put pressure on the mogul after a wave of headlines and an artist rebellion followed Wasserman being named in a tranche of Department of Justice documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice Ghislane Maxwell in late January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMore than 20 artists said they were dropping Wasserman during the height of the February scandal \u2014 including Laufey, Chappell Roan, Best Coast and John Summit \u2014 and the firm\u2019s social pages were deluged with calls for talent to distance themselves from the mogul.\u00a0In an email to employees in February, Wasserman conceded \u201cI have become a distraction\u201d to the company\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tImmediately following Wasserman\u2019s surprise reveal at the time that he was selling his namesake firm, Providence issued a statement on Feb. 14 backing company president Mike Watts and saying, \u201cWe remain fully committed to investing in its growth, expanding its capabilities across sports, music, and entertainment,\u00a0and supporting the extraordinary talent, brands, and properties the Company is proud to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe DoJ documents\u00a0showed\u00a0that in 2003, Wasserman and Maxwell exchanged a series of flirtatious messages, though nothing criminal was mentioned in those emails. Wasserman had also, along with Bill Clinton, Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, flown on Epstein\u2019s private jet on what was said to be a 2002 AIDS research trip to Africa. The mogul apologized at the time, saying on Jan. 31, \u201cI deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWasserman \u2014 which rebranded as The Team in March in order to distance itself from its founder (it used to market itself as \u201cTeam Wass\u201d) \u2014 is one of the biggest players in the sports space. As pro athletes have taken a greater share of the entertainment economy, sports is now one of the most sought after areas in the representation landscape. Wasserman\u2019s sports division generated $266 million in revenue in 2024, 29 percent of the company\u2019s total revenue, an S&amp;P Global report from June of last year detailed. That\u2019s second in Hollywood only to CAA\u2019s sports division, which generated $578 million that year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tProvidence had invested in Wasserman after taking the place of prior investors RedBird Capital and Madrone Capital Partners. Those firms took ownership stakes in sports teams \u2014 football club AC Milan and the NFL\u2019s Denver Broncos \u2014 and thus couldn\u2019t own a stake in a sports talent representation firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn addition to sports, The Team is also home to a notable music agency group built from its 2021 acquisition of Paradigm\u2019s music division, as well as production-management firm Brillstein, a marketing services unit and more properties. Since founding Wasserman in 2002, the company has rolled up multiple creative firms as well as boutique agencies and had 4,000 employees as of earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAs he navigates his exit from management, Wasserman also serves as the chair for LA28, which is organizing Los Angeles\u2019 2028 Olympics game plan. While city officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, have called upon Wasserman to step down from his high-profile role managing the games over the Maxwell emails, they have deferred to the LA28 board, which has backed Wasserman. In February, LA28 said it hired an outside law firm to investigate Wasserman\u2019s correspondence with Maxwell and it found his \u201crelationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Casey Wasserman may soon be no longer on The Team. After being pressured to set up an auction for his Westwood-based firm that drew interest from United Talent Agency, Patrick Whitesell\u2019s upstart shingle WIN and other suitors, the sale of his company may not go to any outside party. Wasserman is in talks to sell&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2259732519.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}