In the interview, Lemon confirmed with Musk that he is prescribed ketamine by a doctor, asking what the drug is used for by the billionaire. 

“I mean, it’s pretty private to ask somebody about a medical prescription,” Musk replied.

However, the billionaire then explained that he suffers from a “negative chemical state in my in my brain, like depression,” which ketamine is used to treat.

“Ketamine is helpful for getting one outside out of a negative frame of mind,” Musk added. “I’m not a doctor, but I would say if someone has depression issues, they should consider talking to the doctors about ketamine instead of SSRIs.”

“Do you feel like you ever abuse it?” Lemon questioned. 

Musk denied abusing the drug and said, “If you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done… I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.”

When asked if he suffers from bouts of depression, Musk said, “I wouldn’t say I have a case of extended depression. It’s just once in a while I get into a negative sort of chemical mindset, once in a while. It’s not a common thing.”

Lemon then asked whether Musk was concerned that his ketamine use may prevent government contracts or worry Wall Street. 

“Well, from a standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution. Are you building value for investors?” Musk responded. “Tesla is worth about as much as the rest of the car industry combined, from nothing, so that’s pretty good.” 

The billionaire continued, “From an investor’s standpoint, if there’s something I’m taking, I should keep taking it,” referencing Tesla’s continued success. 

Musk also noted that the reason he revealed his ketamine prescription on X was the prospect of helping others become more familiar with treatments for depression outside the realm of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

The post Elon Musk Defends Ketamine Use: From Investor Standpoint, ‘If There’s Something I’m Taking, I Should Keep Taking It’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

But whether he will be able to do that is at the heart of the bitter dispute between UTA and the powerhouse strategic adviser.

UTA, led by CEO Jeremy Zimmer, is accusing Kassan of “wasting millions of UTA’s dollars” and says Kassan has a noncompete for two years, while Kassan’s lawyer says that doesn’t hold because he quit — freeing him to poach clients and employees from the Hollywood agency.  

“I didn’t walk away from $10 million in severance, I walked away from Jeremy’s hope I would be beholden to a noncompete,” Kassan told TheWrap as he boarded a private plane to Cabo San Lucas late Thursday. “Whatever I decide to do next will be successful, it will deliver high value to the clients and the community I love to serve, and I’ll be doing it with a martini in my hand, I promise you that.”

The 150 staffers of MediaLink, a powerful strategic consulting firm, will stay at UTA unless they leave with Kassan, one UTA insider told TheWrap. “There are four or five managing directors at the company who are being groomed to take Michael’s position,” the insider said. “We’re going to be fine without him.”

Some of Kassan’s friends told TheWrap that the mogul has been stoic about the split from UTA, which they say exploded after he and Zimmer had a fundamental disagreement over management style. 

Kassan has denied charges that he misappropriated UTA funds and filed his own lawsuit on Wednesday accusing UTA and Zimmer of breach of contract after the $125 million marriage of the two companies soured.

Whatever I decide to do next will be successful…and I’ll be doing it with a martini in my hand.

Michael Kassan

News of Kassan’s exit — his team says he resigned a day before UTA fired him — has rocked the advertising and media world because of his popular profile and deep connections in media, advertising, tech and entertainment. 

He has received messages of support from a host of business leaders including Omincom CEO John Wren; Carolyn Everson, the former global ad chief for Facebook; and even Martin Sorrell, the British founder of WPP Plc, the world’s largest advertising and public relations group, one person close to Kassan told TheWrap.

The Lew Wasserman of media consultancy?

Without Kassan leading MediaLink at UTA, the future of the agency is uncertain, a handful of industry insiders told TheWrap, especially if prominent MediaLink clients decide to desert the Hollywood agency to follow Kassan to his next venture.

“MediaLink without Michael, my own opinion is I don’t think it will prosper,” Wren said. “That’s how important he is to it. He’s unique.”

Wren compared Kassan to Lew Wasserman, the legendary studio head and talent agent. “What Lew Wasserman was to the talent business, Michael is to the media consultancy business,” he said. “The success that MediaLink had is attributable to the relationships that he has.”

Kassan has a “unique skill of matching people who have a particular need and putting them in contact with somebody that they may be able to work with in resolving that need. That’s his magic dust,” he added.

MediaLink boasts clients from AT&T, Salesforce, General Motors, Adobe and a plethora of ad agencies and holding companies. 

Wren and other industry figures told TheWrap that the dispute over Kassan’s spending seems out of proportion compared to his importance to MediaLink.

UTA’s lawsuit alleges that Kassan “has run rampant” with his “special expenses” budget, which pays him up to $950,000 a year after taxes, to fund a “lavish personal lifestyle…with the goal of leaving no trace behind.” 

The agency also claims in its complaint that Kassan “spent hundreds of thousands on private airfare for his entire family for trips that [he] acknowledges were personal in nature and had no rational business purpose.”

The idea that UTA has four or five executives they could stick into Michael’s shoes, I say good f–ing luck with that.

Ad industry veteran Lou Paskalis

UTA retained law firm Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which obtained Kassan’s flight manifests and allegedly found that some of the private jet flights were actually for family vacations to locations including Cabo, Westhampton, NY, and Europe with no clients on board, according to one UTA insider. 

Kassan and his wife, who had a MediaLink credit card, also showered gifts over staffers and clients including Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge, another person close to Kassan told TheWrap.

UTA’s lawsuit also says that in 2023 Kassan used nearly $500,000 in company funds to pay off his personal credit card debt. “In short, Kassan erased any line between his personal and business expenses,” the suit adds.

The marriage between MediaLink and UTA, which stemmed from UTA’s purchase of Kassan’s firm from Ascential Plc in 2021 for $125 million, appeared doomed from the start. Kassan agreed to the deal with the stipulations he would be paid a $2 million base salary, get the special expenses budget, be named a UTA partner while retaining his MediaLink CEO title, and be given a high-profile role running UTA’s entertainment and marketing group. 

But once he arrived at UTA, according to Kassan’s suit, the agency’s marketing heads, Julian Jacobs and David Anderson, were promoted so they didn’t have to bow to his authority.

MediaLink turned a profit for the agency, earning $16.5 million in 2023 according to a source close to Kassan. A UTA insider responded that the talent agency makes “more than 10 times that much in a year.”

Media and advertising executives express support for Kassan

Many in the advertising and media world say MediaLink clients are shocked by Kassan’s departure. He would be impossible to replace, said former Facebook ad chief Carolyn Everson.

“When you have somebody that is as well regarded, well-known, connected in the industry as the pinnacle….that’s hard to overcome,” said Everson, who now sits on the boards of Walt Disney Company, Coca-Cola, and Under Armour. “I’ve got to imagine that there’s a lot of dialogue going on with clients. Should we continue with the business we were going to do with MediaLink? How does it change? This isn’t what we signed up for. You cannot underestimate the enormity of the change to have Michael not be part of MediaLink.”

Everson expressed doubts about UTA’s allegations against him. “The way I look at it is he was very clear when he did the deal that he had a special expense account exactly for $950,000,” she said. “And so to now rake him over the coals and try to destroy his reputation and question his integrity over something that was actually disclosed, it is just wrong.”

Jon Miller, the former CEO of digital media at NewsCorp and the current CEO of TPG-backed investment firm Integrated Media Co., also questioned the nature of the split: “I don’t get this as a business issue, UTA paid $125 million for that company,” Miller said. “And I got to tell you, I don’t know what it’s worth without Michael.”

Miller added that he believed UTA’s move to cut Kassan was part of a trend where Hollywood agencies are being forced to retrench while feeling the pressure to reduce costs following the strikes and challenging economic headwinds. In the back half of 2023, both UTA and CAA underwent layoffs.

Can Kassan really move on?

UTA counsel Bryan Freedman insists that Kassan cannot simply move on and start a new business. “Kassan was fired for cause for stealing millions of dollars from UTA,” Freedman told TheWrap, insisting that Kassan is still bound by a noncompete. “For him or anyone else to talk of a $10 million severance or setting up a new business is delusional.”

Kassan “abused his position” to circumvent the company’s control processes that ensure expense funds are properly accounted for, Freedman said. “He ignored repeated requests to explain and provide documentation for his expenses.”

Sanford Michelman, Kassan’s attorney, insists the circumstances of his exit — including turning down the $10 million separation agreement — mean the exec can fully compete with MediaLink, which means luring away clients and former MediaLink employees. 

“Their agreement spells out that Michael can waive his severance in exchange for the right to solicit current MediaLink clients, current MediaLink employees and fully compete,” Michelman said.

[Kassan] may be the connector, and people may like him a lot, but it is those teams under him that do the real work.

An entertainment industry executive

Ad industry veteran Lou Paskalis also has doubts that MediaLink could continue without Kassan and believes UTA has thrown away its investment in the company. 

“When UTA purchased MediaLink, they were really purchasing Michael Kassan’s access to the senior people in the marketing industry,” Paskalis told TheWrap.

Paskalis, founder and CEO of marketing consulting firm AJL Advisory LLC, said letting Kassan go “was an error in judgment” and that everybody in his business circle remains squarely behind the MediaLink founder.

He predicted UTA would try to operate MediaLink for the next 18 months without Kassan. “But I think eventually UTA will take a writedown on the asset and incorporate the MediaLink talent into the broader company,” Paskalis said. “UTA slammed the door in their own face with this really immature move … It could not have been handled worse.” 

Paskalis compared Kassan to the “Pulp Fiction” fixer The Wolf, played by Harvey Keitel in the 1994 film. “The idea that UTA has four or five executives they could stick into Michael’s shoes, I say good f–king luck with that,” he said.

But other industry insiders insist MediaLink could continue without connector-in-chief Kassan because the firm boasts teams of experienced consultants.

One former entertainment advertising executive who has worked with MediaLink said the company has a significant practice in strategy consulting for media aside from Kassan’s relationships. “They’ve built a brand based on their competency and their work, which really goes to the credit of the teams and their leaders,” the former executive said. “If UTA continues to invest in that side of the business and retains those leaders, they’re going to have a bright future.” 

A second industry insider and executive agreed. “It is an insult to MediaLink’s talented teams of marketing experts to suggest that the company is solely built on Michael Kassan,” this person said. “He may be the connector, and people may like him a lot, but it is those teams under him that do the real work. And it is very hard to set up a new company if you are in active litigation.” 

Yet few doubt that Kassan will push to get back in the game – soon. One friend joked, “Michael is saying sarcastically he will be back on the Croisette at Cannes Lions in June 2024 with a martini and, after all this drama, his new company: MediaStink.”

The post Hollywood Brawl Intensifies: Michael Kassan Plots New Venture as Insiders Weigh MediaLink’s Future Without Founder appeared first on TheWrap.

In a presentation released this week, the House of Mouse revealed that it has seen a 9.9 times return on investment on “Frozen,” a 5.5 times ROI on “Toy Story,” a 3.3 times ROI on Marvel’s “Avengers” and a 2.9 times ROI on “Star Wars.”

Per the filing, Disney suggests that Marvel and Star Wars have generated $13.2 billion and $11.6 billion in value, respectively, since their $4 billion acquisitions in 2009 and 2012.

The return on investment figures, which were pulled from the company’s data, reflect the ratio between revenue and investment on titles released following Disney’s acquisition of the IP.

The revenue reflects the aggregate 10-year revenue streams, both generated and expected, directly associated with theatrical releases, including theatrical, home entertainment, TV (pay and free), and consumer products. It does not include derivative revenue streams, such as park attractions, nor does it include DTC originals associated with those franchises or pre-established franchise consumer products revenue.

Investment reflects film production costs and print & advertising associated with the theatrical release of the titles, and in the case of animated titles it also includes production overhead. It does not include any additional distribution costs or overhead.

In a timeline highlighting major milestones, Disney cites the releases of “Frozen” “Frozen 2,” “Once Upon a Snowman” and “Olaf Presents.” It also includes the openings of For the First Time in Forever and Frozen Ever After at Walt Disney World, Frozen – Live at the Hyperion at Disneyland, World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland and Frozen Kingdom at Tokyo Disneyland.

For Toy Story, the timeline includes the releases of its four Toy Story films, “Lightyear,” NFL Alt-Cast, and the openings of Space Ranger Spin at Walt Disney World, Toy Story Midway Mania at WDW and Disneyland, Jessie’s Critter Carousel at Disneyland, and Toy Story Land at WDW, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland.

For Marvel, Disney cites all four “Avengers” movies and the openings of Avengers Campus at Disney’s California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris.

For Star Wars, it notes the openings of Star Tours, Star Tours: the Adventure Continues and Galaxy’s Edge, the releases of the original, prequel and sequel trilogies, “The Mandalorian,” “the Book of Boba Fett,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Andor,” “Ahsoka” and the upcoming release of three untitled films in 2026 and 2027

Trian Fund Management has nominated its co-founder Nelson Peltz and former Disney chief financial officer Jay Rasulo and Blackwells Capital has nominated former Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal executive Jessica Schell, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff and TaskRabbit founder Leah Solivan to stand election at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting on April 3.

Shareholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 5 will be entitled to vote at the meeting. Disney has approximately 1.8 billion outstanding shares, per its latest proxy filing.

Disney shares have climbed 20.4% in the past year, 23.6% year to date and 31% in the past six months.

The post Disney Reveals $25 Billion Return on Investment for Marvel, Star Wars Franchises Amid Proxy Fight appeared first on TheWrap.

The FCC on Thursday said providers must specify “all-in” prices in an effort to get the companies to eliminate what it called “the misleading practice of describing video programming costs as a tax, fee, or surcharge.”

“No one likes surprises on their bill,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. ” The advertised price for a service should be the price you pay when your bill arrives.  It shouldn’t include a bunch of unexpected junk fees that are separate from the top-line price you were told when you signed up.”

The agency maintained that “all-in” pricing helps consumers make informed choices, “including the ability to comparison shop among competitors and to compare programming costs against alternative programming providers, including streaming services.”  

“TV providers often use deceptive junk fees to hide the real price of their services,” the agency said.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr disagreed with the move, maintaining that the agency does not have statutory authority over satellite billing, cable advertising or satellite advertising.

“I agree that the commission may regulate cable bill disclosures,” Carr said in a statement. “If the item were so limited, I could have supported it.  But the item goes further and strays markedly from our statutory authority.”

That suggests that cable and satellite operators may be able to push back on some of the rules.

The NCTA, which represents internet and television providers, submitted comments to the FCC prior to the decision that said all-in pricing is unnecessary given the competitive nature of the industry, and that adoption of the rules “would only introduce needless complications and confusion to the detriment of consumers.”

The FCC said the move is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to combat junk fees and support transparency for consumers.

The agency is also planning to launch requirements next month for broadband providers to provide clear, easy-to-understand and accurate information about the cost and performance of high-speed internet service, and has proposed rules to eliminate termination fees prior to video service contract expiration dates and billing cycle fees.

“The bottom line is we do not have to have junk fees,” Rosenworcel said. “We can have bills that are transparent and fair.” 

The post FCC to Require Cable, Satellite Operators to Show ‘All-In’ Pricing on Bills, Promotions With No Hidden Fees appeared first on TheWrap.

Distad, who most recently served as an executive at Apple for a decade following six years at Hulu, will assume oversight of all aspects of the partnership, including overall strategy, distribution, marketing, sales and more.

“This is an incredible opportunity to build and grow a differentiated product that will serve passionate sports fans in the US outside of the traditional pay TV bundle,” Distad said in a statement. “I’m excited to be able to pull together the industry-leading sports content portfolios from these three companies to deliver a new best-in-class service.”

Distad worked at the tech giant from 2013 to 2023, where he was responsible for the business, operations and global distribution for sports video at Apple TV+.

During his tenure, he launched the new Apple TV in 2015 and led teams that launched and scaled the Apple TV app, Apple TV+, and MLS Season Pass. He originally joined the company to lead product marketing for the Apple TV hardware product.

Before that, he worked at Hulu from 2007 to 2013, where he was part of the service’s original launch team, overseeing customer acquisition and retention, distribution and marketing. His experience at Hulu included serving as senior vice president of marketing and distribution on the executive team.

Prior to Hulu, Distad worked in various technology and management consulting roles, including at McKinsey & Company, Calence (now Insight) and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

“Pete is an accomplished innovator and leader who has extensive experience with launching and growing new video services,” the companies said in a joint statement. “We are confident he and his team will build an extremely compelling, fan-focused product for our target market.”

Disney, Fox and WBD will each own one-third of the company, have equal board representation and license their sports content to the joint venture on a non-exclusive basis. Distad will report directly to the board of directors and will be based at the to-be-established offices of the joint venture in Los Angeles, along with the independent management team he will assemble.

The service, set to launch this fall, will offer access to content from linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as the ABC network. Content will include the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, College Sports, UFC, PGA TOUR Golf, Grand Slam Tennis, the FIFA World Cup, cycling and much more. Subscribers would also have the option to bundle the product, with Disney+, Hulu and Max.

A name for the service, pricing details and additional staff will be disclosed at a later date, though an individual familiar with the matter previously told TheWrap that the price point would be cheaper than YouTube TV, which charges $72.99 per month for its basic plan. Analysts have estimated that the JV’s pricing could fall anywhere between $35 to $50 per month and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has said it would be in the “higher ranges of what people are talking about.”

Despite the one-third ownership stake for each company, the individual emphasized that the networks will not share revenue from the venture equally, with the companies expected to earn a similar carriage fee rate as they do through other distribution channels where their networks available. The trio will each be responsible for selling their own advertising and will retain all of the ad revenue from their content.

Murdoch has said the JV would target 50 to 60 million households outside of the cable bundle, dubbed “cord nevers.” The offering is expected to reach 5 million subscribers within the first five years of its launch.

The post Pete Distad Named CEO of Fox, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Streaming Joint Venture appeared first on TheWrap.

Under the deal, Spectrum video customers will continue to have access to The Weather Channel TV app at no additional charge on connected TV sets and OTT devices. Additionally, Charter will be able to offer the service to its broadband subscribers for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

The app features The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel en Español, climate-focused digital platform Pattrn, and additional VOD content. 

“We are delighted to continue growing our relationship with Charter Communications,” AMG founder Byron Allen said in a statement. “Charter/Spectrum has been a phenomenal partner to our television networks and our broadcast television stations, and we look forward to prospering from this mutually-beneficial arrangement for years to come.”

The agreement marks the latest carriage renewal for Charter, which struck a first of its kind deal with Disney in September that allows the cable giant to bundle Disney+ and ESPN+ with its Select TV video packages. It also allows them to drop
Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo from those packages.

Charter and TelevisaUnivision also struck an agreement that will give Spectrum customers access to a new ad-supported version of the Spanish-language network’s ViX streaming service. TelevisaUnivision’s U.S. Channels will be included as a launch partner in a new low-cost Spanish-language internet-delivered video package that Spectrum will launch in the coming months.

In addition to its agreement with Charter, Allen Media Group recently closed a new multi-year deal with CBS to retain its affiliation in five U.S. markets. The agreement covers CBS-affiliated stations in Rochester, Minnesota (KIMT), Chico, California (KHSL), Terre Haute, Indiana (WTHI), West Lafayette, Indiana (WLFI) and Evansville, Indiana (WEVV).

The post Allen Media Group, Charter Communications Strike Multi-Year Carriage Agreement appeared first on TheWrap.

Zucker, the CNN chief, is now CEO of media investment firm RedBird IMI, which is backed by an Abu Dhabi fund controlled by UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan — who also owns the Manchester City football club.

Their attempted $1.4 billion take over of the conservative newspaper and its sister publication, The Spectator magazine, generated “fierce resistance” from Britain’s Conservative party, The Financial Times reported. The publications have longstanding ties with the country’s right, with the paper nicknamed the “Torygraph” for its longstanding support for Conservative views.

Sunak on Wednesday moved to change the law to bar such a sale, which the FT said “will delight some executives at the Telegraph and Spectator” who opposed the idea of foreign ownership.

“We will amend the media merger regime explicitly to rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states,” Stephen Parkinson, the culture minister in the House of Lords, said Wednesday, Reuters reported. After being proposed to the Lords, the measure must go to the House of Commons for a vote, which will take place in two weeks.

RedBird IMI told Reuters it was extremely disappointed and would now evaluate its next steps, but declined to comment to TheWrap.

Zucker has argued that RedBird IMI is not a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the government, but has not fully explained where the money comes from.

The tussle over the deal put Zucker up against Andrew Neil, a former Sunday Times editor and BBC presenter who now chairs The Spectator, Semafor reported.

Zucker, speaking on “The News Agents” podcast, called Neil “quite the hypocrite” for opposing the deal after he earlier approached RedBird about a job as the combined chairman of The Telegraph and The Spectator. “We said no thanks, and ever since that day he’s been one of our most vocal critics,” Zucker said. “Gimme a break.”

Neil’s version painted the situation differently, Semafor reported, as big American money trying to walk all over the British way of doing things. ““When Zuckie came on the scene we were dealing with someone who was ignorant of Britain, British media and British newspapers/magazines and was basically a front for Arab money,” Neil said in an email to Semafor’s Ben Smith. “We didn’t know he was also a liar. Now we do.”

Zucker attempted to allay concerns put forth by UK Culture Minister Lucy Frazer earlier this year by tweaking the deal with the Barclay Family, the longtime owners of the Telegraph Group, which was nearly forced to auction the publications off thanks to $1.5 billion in debt owned to Lloyds. RedBird bailed them out on that debt last year.

He reportedly even offered to keep RedBird’s ownership stake below 50% and give up operational control to appease lawmakers, but that fueled belief that “the real motive for this bid is not operational but to acquire influence via a significant stake in the national press,” Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson wrote.

Nevertheless, the deal was still under investigation to gauge its impact on freedom of expression and accuracy, Reuters reported. Frazer was handed a report Monday prepared by Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority on the proposed takeover and she was expected to have final say on the sale.

Around 100 lawmakers wrote to Frazer warning of the potential down side of any sale to RedBird IMI.

“The free press is a key pillar of our democracy,” the letter said. “If major newspaper and media organizations can be purchased by foreign governments, the freedom of the press in the UK has the potential to be seriously undermined.”

The post Jeff Zucker’s Telegraph Buyout Likely Dead as UK Government Moves to Block Sale appeared first on TheWrap.

The one-time Goldman Sachs executive told CNBC he will lead a group in an attempt to take over China-based ByteDance’s hugely popular short video app, after legislation demanding it be sold to a US company or banned outright moves to the Senate after overwhelmingly passed in the House of Representatives. President Biden has said he will sign the bill.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” said Mnuchin, who now leads the private-equity firm Liberty Strategic Capital. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

Lawmakers are concerned that the company, though it claims independence, is ultimately answerable to the Chinese Communist Party, which could use the app to influence the 170 million Americans who have downloaded it.

“This should be owned by U.S. businesses,” Mnuchin said. “There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, however, implied in a video posted late Wednesday that the app is not for sale.

Chew said the legislation “will lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States,” while putting more power in the hands of social media companies.

“We will continue to do all we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this amazing platform we have built for you,” Chew said. “We believe we can overcome this together.”

It’s also not clear if the Chinese government would allow TikTok to be sold.

Mnuchin, who was the only member of former President Donald Trump’s cabinet to last his full term, has a background in film. He formed Dune Entertainment in 2004, which financed a wide range of films, including the “X-Men” franchise and James Cameron’s “Avatar.” In 2012, the company combined with filmmaker Brett Ratner and Australian businessman James Packer’s RatPac Entertainment, which has backed films like “American Sniper,” “The Lego Movie” and “Wonder Woman.”

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president again this year, has come out against the ban, despite attempting similar measures while he was in office. Now, Trump maintains a ban would push more users to Meta’s Facebook, which he last week lumped in with the media as “the enemy of the people.”

CNBC said the value of the app alone is not clear, but ByteDance was pegged at $220 billion in its last funding round of 2023.

Mnuchin did not name any other potential investors or offer a price tag he’d be willing to pay.

Another possible buyer former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The post Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Eyes TikTok Purchase After House Vote appeared first on TheWrap.

The legal salvos are damaging for both UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer, who usually likes to keep his business private, and Kassan, the smooth-talking executive now engaged in vicious invective against his former friend. 

“UTA’s claims are a desperate attack in response to Kassan resigning and then suing them,” Kassan attorney Sanford Michelman said in a statement to TheWrap. “It is not just hypocrisy, but an attempted diversion tactic by UTA to hide that they fraudulently induced Michael into agreeing to a transaction when Zimmer had no intention of honoring his word.” 

But the allegations of misappropriated funds are very damaging, from overspending on private jets, to Kassan’s wife sending lavish gifts to clients and paying $60,000 for his chauffeur’s rent.

How did it get this bad? The deal struck in 2021 for $125 million made a lot of sense for both sides. Bringing a Madison Avenue powerhouse into a premium talent agency should have won huge advertising and brand windfalls.

“Who would have thought that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez would appear in a Dunkin Donuts ad until this year?“ one industry source told TheWrap. “Look at the roster of Super Bowl ads, you have Beyoncé plugging Verizon, Michael Cera pushing CeraVe. Having an advertising super-broker in a big Hollywood agency is a great idea.”

Yet almost from the beginning, the deal began to sour. By 2022, the relationship between Zimmer and Kassan had become “difficult and untenable,” according to Kassan’s suit.

“It’s pretty clear that there was some kind of organ rejection,” one industry insider told TheWrap. Kassan’s unique style of doing business, which involved private planes and a lavish expense account to buy gifts for power players like Jeffrey Katzenberg and LionTree CEO Aryeh Bourkoff, clashed with the scrappier UTA business culture.

“Anybody who knows Michael, that’s how he operates,” the person close to Kassan said.

Now Kassan has told people close to him and his business that he wants to take MediaLink back — or at least go it alone again. But first he’ll have to battle UTA for control of the contracts and relationships he brought to the global agency. And the protracted legal wrangling promises to be destructive to both sides.

Duelling Lawsuits

UTA filed a civil suit against Kassan on Wednesday alleging “misappropriation of company funds.” The agency says Kassan “abused his title and authority” and had “run rampant with his business expense accounts — wasting millions of UTA’s dollars on his lavish personal lifestyle,” which included personal luxury travel for him and his family, a credit card for his wife to buy gifts for staff and clients, and payments for a driver’s apartment and a personal housekeeper.

The suit came as Kassan filed his own legal action for breach of contract and fraud, saying he quit a day before UTA said it fired him on March 7 and that the agency had not kept its side of the deal terms when MediaLink was sold to UTA in 2021. In the suit, which is a demand for arbitration, he presented as evidence a resignation letter dated March 6.

Kassan has denied the claims of wasteful spending. A person close to him said “the allegations against him are insane.” He declined a $10 million severance offer from UTA in order to be able to compete with MediaLink, according to his lawsuit against UTA.

“We spent a week saying let’s do this quietly — we don’t want to ruin everyone’s reputation,” a senior executive at UTA told TheWrap. “[Kassan] chose to file this lawsuit. It’s so unfortunate.”

Now Kassan wants his company back, one industry insider told TheWrap. That begs the question: How valuable is MediaLink and its 150 employees without its founder and CEO, Kassan, “who is connected to everybody that matters,” as one industry insider told TheWrap.

From tax lawyer and chicken franchiser to powerhouse connector

Kassan began his career as a tax lawyer, practicing for over 10 years, before starting in the entertainment business as the head of International Video Entertainment, which is now part of Lionsgate.

In 1994, Kassan joined Initiative Media Worldwide as President/COO and Vice-Chairman. In 1997, Advertising Age named him one of the top media executives in the U.S.

Those early years were not without controversy. In 1995, a Superior Court judge in California found Kassan guilty of “grand theft by embezzlement” for transferring $240,000 from El Pollo Loco franchises in California to cash-starved chicken franchises in Las Vegas, recording the payments as loans on the books, as recounted in Ken Auletta’s book “Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business.”

His law firm terminated him and referred criminal charges to the police. The conviction was later reduced to a misdemeanor and expunged. Kassan appealed to the California Supreme Court to avoid losing his law license, which ruled in his favor and did not disbar him, according to an excerpt of the ruling included in Auletta’s book. 

In 2003, Kassan founded MediaLink as an advertising, marketing, content, sales and service agency to link the industries closely through technology. The firm, initially based in New York, grew to advise all the top ad agencies and many powerful media executives. Kassan gained access to media moguls and formed close relationships with entertainment executives like Universal Music Group Chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge and iHeart Media co-founder Robert Pittman.

“Michael could set up meetings that could change people’s careers,” one insider said. ”He could broker multi-million deals, but he always did it with his modest and affable character. He’d make you feel like you were the talented one making the moves, while he was behind the scenes.”

Kassan used MediaLink to amass considerable influence in the advisory and connection trade between Madison Avenue, big business and big tech.

And he was raking in a fortune, media insiders said.

He began to build his presence at big industry events including the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in southern France, where he hosts his own week of programming and interviews and throws the most exclusive party of the week, at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. The party has featured performances from Mariah Carey, Chris Martin and Sting and is attended by a host of top advertising CEOs and Hollywood stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Courtney Love and supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Kassan and MediaLink are also a big presence at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas every January, where he throws a lavish bash for the tech crowd and CEOs. 

It’s pretty clear that there was some kind of organ rejection.

one industry insider on the UTA-Kassan merger

But he remains a family man and is often accompanied by his wife Ronnie and their three children.

MediaLink became so respected for its expertise, one industry insider explained, that clients frequently turned to MediaLink to conduct annual ad agency reviews — effectively acting as a referee making calls on whether a major company would retain the services of an ad agency or hire a different one.

In 2019, the American Advertising Federation inducted Kassan into its Hall of Fame, considered the highest honor in advertising. He delivered a rousing speech. “The future is something you have a hand in creating,” he said. “It favors the brave.”

UTA and a culture clash

Becoming wealthy building MediaLink, Kassan sold the company to British publishing powerhouse Ascential in 2017.

In 2021, UTA acquired MediaLink from Ascential, bringing Kassan’s global connections in music, entertainment, media, tech and advertising under the UTA roof, allowing the agency to better compete with rivals Endeavor and CAA in advising Fortune 500 CEOs on their advertising and media messaging. 

“What seemed at first to be an amazing one-man band has become a first-class, global consulting firm with powerful colleagues, deep expertise and unparalleled relationships,” UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer said in a press release announcing the deal. “This acquisition is a clear signal that UTA sees its work at the intersection of entertainment, brands and marketing as a core pillar of the future growth opportunities we are able to provide for our clients.”

Kassan’s reasons for agreeing to the deal are less clear. “He made so much money from MediaLink, some of his friends don’t understand the UTA deal — he really didn’t need it,” one insider told TheWrap.

From the outset Kassan was clear about what he required from UTA. When it purchased Medialink, the deal included an agreement to continue “past practices” set up between Ascential and MediaLink. He negotiated two major contract provisions, according to his suit against UTA. First, that he would oversee longterm strategy and day-to-day operations of UTA Marketing. And second, that UTA would recognize he would incur “special expenses” annually of $950,000 net after taxes, as he had while under Ascential.

Kassan says in his lawsuit that he nevertheless spent less than that allotted amount.

Along with a lucrative pay day, terms of which have not been disclosed, UTA also made Kassan a partner and allowed him to serve as CEO and chairman of MediaLink.

While the two sides disagree on many fundamental points, most everyone agrees on one thing: the situation is a lose-lose all around.

“This is really uncomfortable for clients,” the industry insider said. “Nobody wants to be in the middle of a divorce.” As strategic advisers, “You’re there to solve their headaches. They’re not supposed to be inside of your headache. That’s not how this game is supposed to work.”

Sharon Waxman contributed to this story.

The post UTA vs. Michael Kassan: A $125 Million Deal With an Advertising Powerhouse Blows Up appeared first on TheWrap.

One of his grandchildren confirmed the news to the New York Times and said that Levin had been fighting Parkinson’s disease and died in a hospital in Long Beach, California.

The merger that created AOL Time Warner, one of the most enduring symbols of the excesses and recklessness of the Dot Com era, could not have been more poorly timed. Announced on January 10, 2000 at the height of the dot com bubble, the deal was supposed to combine the then-leader in the still emerging internet service provider industry with the at-the-time largest media company in the world — whose assets included Time Magazine, Warner Bros. HBO and more — to create a powerhouse for the internet age.

But it took a full year before regulators granted final approval, a year during which there were nearly daily warnings of how bad an idea it was.

The dot com bubble burst in March of 200o. Near the end of the year a wave of recessions swept the global economy that caught up with the United States in March, 2001. Meanwhile, AOL was caught flat-footed by the rise of high speed broadband internet, which gutted the landline-focused AOL’s share of ISP market and cratered its value.

By the end of 2001 the company’s stock price dropped more than 50% and in the first quarter of 2002, AOL Time Warner set an unfortunate new record when it took a $54 billion write-down. The debacle permanently crippled the company, which changed its name back to Time Warner in 2003. Today, what used to be Time Warner is now part of Warner Bros. Discovery.

But the company’s increasing calamities were no longer Levin’s problem. In mid-2001 he was nearly ousted by a revolt within the company sparked by Vice Chairman Ted Turner and spearheaded by AOL co-founder Steve Case. In December he announced his retirement, effective May, 2022.

It was an ignoble end to an otherwise successful 30-year tenure that, prior to AOL Time Warner, was considered brilliant.

Levin joined then-Time, Inc in 1972 as a programming executive. Just 32 years old, he changed television viewing habits forever by pushing to make HBO a nationally available channel. The success proved there was a market for national cable channels and established the format as the future of TV. As a result, within the company Levin was regarded as a genius. He was named Time Warner CEO in 1992.

Born in 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Levin attended UPenn law school, graduating in 1963. He was married and divorced three times; he had 5 children.

The post Gerald M. Levin, Time Warner CEO Who Oversaw AOL Merger Disaster, Dies at 84 appeared first on TheWrap.