Over a May 15 lunch at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, William Morris Agency Chairman Jim Wiatt received sobering advice from his close friends, entertainment attorney Skip Brittenham and former Viacom Inc. executive Tom Freston.
The more than century-old talent agency was on the cusp of merging with hotshot rival Endeavor, and it was becoming clear that there would be no place at the table for Wiatt.
The best course, Wiatt's intimates diplomatically suggested, would be for him to quietly step aside.
Wiatt was taken aback, according to friends and associates who asked not to be identified because the lunch was a private matter. He had initiated the merger -- and spent the last five months fighting for it -- overcoming some fierce internal opposition. When the deal was formally announced April 27, Wiatt was named chairman of the new William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
Merging the two agencies, which would allow the new firm to challenge the dominance of Creative Artists Agency, was the capstone of Wiatt's three-decade-long career. The deal is expected to close as early as Tuesday, at which point Wiatt will step into a role to help with the transition through the end of the year.
Wiatt had been telling people that he planned to remain at the helm for at least a couple years. But it wasn't to be.
"At the end of the day, he wasn't going to have a real operating role," Freston said. "It's sometimes hard to pull yourself away from the day to day."
It was hardly the Hollywood ending that Wiatt, 62, had envisioned. He saw the merger as the best way to secure a future for the 111-year-old William Morris at a time when Hollywood is making fewer films and television shows, ad revenue is shrinking along with DVD sales, and technology is upending the way consumers watch entertainment. Talent agencies are at the nexus of connecting talent with producers, and the only way to stay competitive, Wiatt has argued, would be to make a bold stroke at getting bigger.
Uniting the rival firms would also reinvigorate William Morris by bringing in Endeavor's young, dynamic managing partners, Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, Wiatt has maintained.
But a transformative deal would not come without a heavy cost to Wiatt, including alienating several of his closest colleagues, triggering more than a hundred employee layoffs -- and ultimately accelerating his own exit. Agency executives say Wiatt believed the benefits outweighed any risks and bad publicity.
