WME-IMG
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| Private partnership | |
| Industry | Talent and literary agencies |
| Founded | 2009 in Beverly Hills, California, United States |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California, United States |
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Key people
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Ari Emanuel (Co-CEO) Patrick Whitesell (Co-CEO) |
| Owner | Silver Lake Partners (51%) |
| Subsidiaries |
IMG Ultimate Fighting Championship Professional Bull Riders Miss Universe |
| Website | www |
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC, also known as William Morris Endeavor, WME or WME-IMG, is an American talent agency with offices in Beverly Hills. The company was founded in April 2009, after the merger of the William Morris Agency and the Endeavor Agency. WME represents artists across all media platforms, specifically movies, television, music, theatre, digital and publishing. It also represents the NFL and NHL. WME also owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Miss Universe. The company is run by Co-CEOs Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell.
As the entertainment industry evolved, so did WMA, which soon expanded into television, film, literature and music representation.
The Endeavor Talent Agency launched in 1995, nearly 100 years after WMA, and rapidly grew to include clients from every facet of the entertainment industry. By 2009, Endeavor was one of the fastest-growing Hollywood talent agencies, with the New York Times singling out its reputation for "quick thinking, ferocity and barely bridled ambition."
On April 27, 2009, WMA and the Endeavor Talent Agency announced that they were forming William Morris Endeavor, or WME. Endeavor executives Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell were widely seen as the architects of the merger and quickly became the Co-CEOs of WME.
In 2011, Emanuel was quoted in a Financial Times profile about the company, saying "We built a culture where people are rewarded for taking risks." Emanuel and Whitesell have implemented several leadership strategies to boost the productivity of their agents, most notably, the "Farmhouse" training program.
Following the merger, WME moved its headquarters into the offices of Endeavor. The company now takes up several floors at 9601 Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of Beverly Hills. Additionally, WME has offices in New York, London, Miami, and Nashville.
Since the merger, WME has grown to include several subsidiary companies and expanded divisions. Fortune named Co-CEOs Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell to their 2010 "Businessperson of the Year" list, acknowledging their corporate growth strategies. Emanuel had previously been recognized as a 21st-century "super agent" by both The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, as well as an Advertising Age "Influencer."
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Wikipedia