Over at the brand new, EntertainmentAgentBlog.com, we have discussed the effects of the recent merger between William Morris Agency and Endeavor. The merger is not only affecting the entertainment industry, but has been felt in many other industries, as well…including sports. Endeavor has never put together a sports division, but William Morris had some high profile sports clients before the two companies decided to join. Since the new joint-company has been established, over 100 WMA employees have been fired or asked to gracefully resign. And one of WMA’s biggest sports guys, Lon Rosen, may be on his way out as well.
Rosen was initially signed by WMA to build a sports marketing division. He was slapped with a VP title and quickly accumulated clients with names like Magic Johnson and Alex Rodriguez. Interestingly, before switching over to WMA, Rosen was with Endeavor. So who is pushing Rosen out now, or if he is not being pushed out, why does he so suddenly want to leave?
When the WMA/Endeavor merger was still only a rumor, I speculated that the new entity may finally create a large sports representation division to rival CAA. Rosen would have been one of the people on a short list to run that new division. If he is on his way out, does that mean that this new sports representation division might have only been a pipe-dream of mine?
