Casey Wasserman may soon be no longer on The Team.
After being pressured to set up an auction for his Westwood-based firm that drew interest from United Talent Agency, Patrick Whitesell’s upstart shingle WIN and other suitors, the sale of his company may not go to any outside party.
Wasserman is in talks to sell his stake in the company to private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, Matthew Belloni reported at Puck on Thursday. Providence had already taken a major stake in Wasserman in November 2022 to fuel growth at the company — notably, a major acquisition of Brillstein Entertainment less than a year later — so a buyout of the company’s founder would keep the firm in the same strategic hands it had been in for the past several years.
The news of a would-be deal breakthrough arrives three months after the first round of bids were submitted in April to investment bank Moelis & Co, which handled the auction process. (The bank’s leader, Ken Moelis, sits on Wasserman’s LA28 Olympics Committee board).
Providence, a source previously told The Hollywood Reporter, had put pressure on the mogul after a wave of headlines and an artist rebellion followed Wasserman being named in a tranche of Department of Justice documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice Ghislane Maxwell in late January.
