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        <title><![CDATA[Steve Cohen-backed management firm declares war on Hollywood agencies]]></title>
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        <lastBuildDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:04:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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            <media:title type="html">Steve Cohen-backed management firm declares war on Hollywood agencies</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Things are about to get ugly in Tinseltown.</p><p>Hollywood&#8217;s newest <strong>management firm, backed by billionaire Steve Cohen</strong>, has been promising investors it will succeed by waging war on an ailing industry weakened by the coronavirus, according to a leaked investor pitch deck.</p><p>The new firm, dubbed &#8220;Moxie Media,&#8221; has been handing out a pitch deck that describes the talent agency business as in &#8220;free fall&#8221; and ripe for poaching, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter.</p><p>“The agency’s [sic] equity value is in free fall, there has never been a better time to recruit high-end representatives away from their current incumbent. We have never seen more high-end representatives ready to leave these institutions,” reads the undated 20-page investor presentation.</p><p>The document then compares its backers, including ex-CAA&#8217;s Peter Micelli, to the founders of top agencies, WME and CAA. &#8220;All the principals of Moxie Media are higher-level and more established in the business than when <strong>Mike Ovitz</strong> &amp; <strong>Ron Meyer</strong> formed CAA&#8221; or when <strong>Ari Emanuel</strong> and Tom Strickler created Endeavor, the document said.</p><p>News of the fledgling agency, which broke on Aug. 23, sent Hollywood into a tizzy as it became clear that the Micelli-led company had already lured a <strong>dozen senior agents</strong> from top firms like CAA, UTA and WME to form a management firm backed by <strong>Cohen,</strong> a hedge fund trader and art collector worth $14 billion.</p><p>Hollywood insiders initially tried to shrug off the startup as a matter of course, explaining that management companies pose little threat to talent agencies because most stars have both an agent and a manager and some agents naturally leave their agencies to become managers.</p><p>But behind the scenes, tongues were wagging and agency sources are buzzing that Moxie had designs on becoming an agency &#8220;eventually.&#8221; And <strong>as The Post reported</strong> on Aug. 24, Hollywood insiders have already begun to look for ways to discredit the new firm, including through Cohen&#8217;s support for President Trump, who is not terribly popular in Hollywood.</p><p>Cohen supported Chris Christie in the 2016 GOP primary before giving $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. But he hedgie and his wife have also been generous donors to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a democrat.</p><p>A rep for Moxie did not return requests seeking comment.</p><p>Reports of the pitch deck are giving Tinseltown&#8217;s agencies even more reason to fret over losing their top executives &#8212; and their stars.</p><p>“Focus is on the top 1% of celebrities in the entertainment &amp; sports space,&#8221; the pitch reads. &#8220;We will be pushing celebrities to build company value and insisting they understand the need to diversify their businesses. Helping to create a narrative for what their company and career stands for. Specificity and expertise create the next wave of curators.”</p><p>The business model calls for Moxie to build companies around its stars, including products and branding. Moxie would take one-third of the company, the celebrity one-third, and a third-party investor one-third.</p><p>In order to &#8220;capture real wealth,&#8221; celebrities need to own their own businesses, according to the slide deck. A slide called &#8220;The Boiling Frog&#8221; depicts a cartoon frog in hot water takes a shot at Hollywood&#8217;s current dealing with celebrities, saying they have been moving to a &#8220;work for hire&#8221; model as film and TV companies have &#8220;capped all long-term upside.&#8221;</p><p>The document also describes the <strong>standoff between major agencies</strong> and the Writers Guild of America as the &#8220;worst rift in the history of the entertainment business.&#8221; The company tells potential investors in the deck: &#8220;Moxie Media is recruiting top literary agents to develop a representation business of high-level showrunners for the first time in the history of the management space.&#8221;</p><p><em>Additional reporting by Thronton McEnery</em></p>]]></content:encoded>
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