GOOD PRESS BUZZ
Agent eyes THR buy
Super agent Ari Emanuel could soon have an even bigger voice in Hollywood.
Emanuel’s WME/IMG has talked to former Guggenheim Partners honcho Todd Boehly about a possible acquisition of his media holdings, which include TV production company Dick Clark Productions and trade publications The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, The Post has learned.
“Todd and Ari are good friends and have talked before about doing business together,” said one source.
Said a second source: “They’ve had talks...For THR, Billboard, DCP.”
It’s unclear if the talks are ongoing or whether they will lead to a deal for any or all of the assets, which one source suggested were worth more than $500 million.
Reps for Boehly’s Eldridge Industries declined to comment. WME said: “We’re not talking to them.”
Boehly exited Guggenheim about a year ago with some of the assets he acquired while with the firm. Eldridge has been working with Moelis & Co. and Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of its holdings.
A prospective Chinese buyer is also kicking the tires, other sources said.
Dick Clark Productions produces the American Music Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards. It is also a co-creator of the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance.”
If WME/IMG ended up with The Hollywood Reporter, it would raise some eyebrows in a town that has seen it all. The venerable entertainment trade magazine, led by editor Janice Min, featured WME/IMG coCEOs Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell in an April 8 cover story, “Super Agents Inc.”
In that story, Emanuel — the real-life model for the hardchanging agent played by Jeremy Piven in HBO’s “Entourage” — hinted he wanted to increase the firm’s ownership of content.
“Patrick and I have always had an idea that distribution is going to disrupt our business,” he said. “So in our move from Endeavor to WME, WME to IMG, you’ve seen the expansion of our list of things that create content.”
The firm has money to spend after Japan’s SoftBank invested $250 million in the entertainment and sports powerhouse in the spring , valuing it at roughly $5.5 billion.