Word: ovitz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Among those whom Ovitz's arrangement with Credit Lyonnais took by surprise was Alan Ladd Jr., the chairman of the bank's MGM studio. "By the time the bank told me about the deal," Ladd says, "it was a fait accompli." He seems tentative about the whole thing. "I don't think MGM is for sale at this time." However, CAA sources confirm that Ovitz is indeed out to find a buyer...
...Dufour, a director of the Credit Lyonnais, dismisses the fears of Ovitz's critics who fret about conflicts of interest. Ovitz will meet with the bankers often, maybe monthly, but Dufour says Ovitz will wield no operational power over the studio. "Absolutely not. False -- completely wrong," he says. "MGM has its own management. MGM makes its own decisions. We do not tell it what to do; nor will anyone else." His presence, however, will inevitably be felt by studio executives and by moviemakers cutting MGM deals...
...Ovitz calls the consulting arrangement "a minuscule part of my business." A close financier friend says it's "light stuff for Michael. He should be able to dash off this kind of advice on the car phone while he's taking his son to the ball game." Perhaps, but a fee of, say, $30 million would in fact represent a very significant fraction of CAA's annual revenues...
...eminent New York investment banker Felix Rohatyn, who is Credit Lyonnais's official banker and represented MCA in the Matsushita deal, thinks his friend Ovitz may be getting perilously close to unavoidable conflicts of interest. "If Michael is involved both in the restructuring of the entertainment companies that Credit Lyonnais has an investment in -- by - bringing in talent, by directing their entertainment strategy, by helping them get television product or motion picture product -- and at the same time provides financial advice as to what to do with these companies, then he's probably going to be walking a very fine...
...energetically spreading the idea that Ovitz isn't minding the store. Says Block about CAA's extracurricular businesses: "Smart clients question what's the value-added service when senior agents are busy with outside deals, and they get shunted to junior agents." His boss Jeff Berg echoes that point: "My core business is managing the careers of talented people." This may be the major risk in Ovitz's expansive strategy; CAA clients could start to feel neglected and then restless, even if their fears were unjustified...