The Agent Dance: ICM On The Block
With terrorists attacking London and scaring most of the Western world shitless (there really was no way to avoid mentioning this), we instinctually cling to the bosom of Ari Emanuel and The Agent Dance, seeking solace underneath the warming wattage of that inimitable smile. Radar Online seems to confirm what we heard at the close of last week, reporting that ICM is ready to spread its legs for the suitor with the fattest wallet:
According to a source close to Wall Street investment bank Allen & Co., the 58-year-old talent agency mogul [Jeff Berg] has been in talks with the white shoe firm about selling or merging his company. A top Hollywood studio player put it more bluntly: “ICM is on the block.”
While ICM spokesman David Shane dismissed word of the sale as “absolutely not true,” an Allen & Co. representative responded to queries with a tantalizing, “There’s nothing I can tell you right now.”
We still haven't heard anything new on the rumor that Paradigm was about to snap up ICM, but the way people were chattering, we half-expected to wake up to a press release about The 'Digm's big acquisition on Tuesday morning. There might still be time for us to call a dozen of our most-connected friends and pool enough capital to buy one of Jeff Berg's paperweights before someone swoops in and buys the building out from underneath it.