The Century City-based firm is the last of the top talent firms to undergo staff cuts.
Since touring went off the road in March and most festivals were postponed, along with the closure of Hollywood film and television production, the industry representation business has had a financial impact. On Tuesday, CAA became the last major agency to reveal plans for layoffs and licenses amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
“Starting this week, approximately 90 agents and department executives from across the agency will be leaving. In addition, we are suspending approximately 275 assistants and other staff. The company will continue to fully pay the health plan premiums for those who are suspended. ” The CAA spokesman said.
The cuts extended to all of the agency’s departments, including employees in cross-division functions, such as the finance and information technology departments, were also affected. Affected CAA employees will receive compensation and receive benefits through September 30. For employees without permission, the agency will pay the health plan premiums during the time of the leave.
The cuts are notable in that CAA, which has approximately 2,100 total employees, is the last of the top talent agencies to undergo a major round of layoffs. In April, the agency said it would implement company-wide proportional pay cuts to avoid permits, with co-chairs Richard Lovett, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane pledging to forgo wages for the rest of 2020.
On May 4, S&P Global lowered CAA’s credit rating from “B +” to “B” amid the pandemic. While the financial services firm noted that CAA “will maintain sufficient liquidity to meet all of its debt obligations,” its forecast also noted that “the agency’s represented talent is being directly affected by these disruptions because they are not receiving compensation.”
Layoffs have occurred at almost every level of the live music business with promoters Live Nation and AEG making substantial cuts to their workforce, permanent and temporary cuts. In May, WME said it would lay off and lay off twenty percent of its workforce, and its parent company, Endeavor, which has a workforce of 7,500 employees, would let 83 employees go alone at its Beverly Hills location.
After implementing salary cuts, UTA also began firing employees in May, and the agency temporarily laid off 171 employees in Beverly Hills, according to a statement from the California Department of Employment Development. “We hope that the salary reductions we take are sufficient, but at this point we must take this additional step,” wrote UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer in a May 4 memo.
Century City-based ICM Partners, which employs more than 500 employees, said June 26 that it would fire 40 support employees in a reorganization aimed at increasing attendees’ wages. And the talent agency APA, on June 30, said it was implementing an unspecified number of permits, as well as salary cuts to its workforce of 300 employees. Public records show that APA accepted $ 2 million to $ 5 million in loans from the United States Department of Treasury’s Payment Protection Program.
Earlier in the pandemic in March, Paradigm said it was implementing wage cuts and leave for its more than 600 employees, and the agency later revealed to the state of California that it temporarily laid off 130 employees.
Dave Brooks contributed to this article.
