One-time Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, whose attempt at a comeback was a multimillion-dollar failure, is selling his troubled talent management company.
Artists Management Group will be absorbed by the Firm, a music management company that represents the popular groups Korn, Limp Bizkit and the Dixie Chicks.
"The new company will be a very strong entertainment and brand management company and will have the resources to build a diverse and creative company," Ovitz said Sunday in a statement. "I wish the new group all the success in the future."
"It has not been an adversarial process," said Jeff Kwatinetz, the Firm's chairman and chief executive.
Ovitz, 55, will have no management role in the new company or its sister companies.
AMG's film production company, record label, animation company and sports management unit will be spun off into individual companies.
The Firm will get about 40 AMG managers.
The two said they expect AMG clients such as Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson to join them at the new company. Both also said they remain friendly with Ovitz.
In addition to its music management, the 4-year-old Firm also represents actors Martin Lawrence and Vin Diesel, is involved in film and music production and owns the Pony sportswear company. The Los Angeles-based company currently has 130 employees.
Ovitz, who remains a multimillionaire, was once considered among the most powerful dealmakers in the movie industry. He co-founded Creative Artists Management before leaving to become president of The Walt Disney Co. in 1995. He left that position in a highly publicized fallout that garnered him $38 million in cash and roughly $100 million in Disney shares.
He began Artists Management Group in 1999, brokering film and television deals with its own roster of stars.
But the effort proved disastrous as it lost large sums of money.
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