Yesterday, CAA’s leadership team offered all of its outstanding equity holders the opportunity to liquidate a small portion of their holdings — Page Six Hollywood has learned — following a preliminary ruling against CAA in the power agency’s ongoing legal dispute with Range Media Partners.
In a letter sent out Monday morning, CAA president Jim Burtson said participants in the company’s equity program could liquidate 5.6% of their holdings.
The timing of the offer struck many as curious, coming five weeks after a three-judge panel ruled CAA must pay $36 million to four former employees who had their equity stripped when they broke off to start Range back in 2020. The judges also ruled that instead of just reinstating the breakaway agents’ equity and slotting the Range founders — Jack Whigham, Dave Bugliari, Michael Cooper and Mick Sullivan — back into CAA’s cap table, the agency had to pay out $36 million in cash, which has widespread implications.
By (eventually) being forced to pay out the equity to the four Range founders, CAA principals Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett opened themselves up to simmering resentment from current and former employees who’ve been restricted from cashing in their equity despite multiple liquidity events over the past 14 years including Artémis’ acquisition of a majority stake in CAA in 2023, which valued the company at $7 billion. (Artémis is a holding company for a number of luxury brands from Gucci to Balenciaga, and is owned by French billionaire François-Henri Pinault.)
CAA is appealing the arbitration ruling, and a source close to the company told P6H that the legal fight is far from over — with a final resolution still years away. CAA is also pursuing a civil suit in state court, alleging breach of fiduciary duty and tortious interference. (The four former employees deny the charges and have countersued.)
“It’s far from equitable, but at least it’s something,” says a source with a sizable amount of CAA equity who spoke to P6H after recently reviewing the firm’s latest offer. Like many others, this source has been frustrated with the lack of a clear vesting schedule for their CAA equity, but says the Range ruling has applied new pressure on CAA principals to provide clarity on when equity holders can expect to be paid out.
As P6H previously reported, judges determined that the CAA principals may have breached their fiduciary duty. The inclusion of that language along with the opacity surrounding how the principals managed the employee stock program reportedly opens the door for additional potential legal action — a mass suit that could include dozens of plaintiffs — over how CAA managed the employee stock program.
“I think they’re going to have to allow people to liquidate more as pressure mounts on them. That is a function of the Range suit,” said the source.
A source close to CAA countered the idea that the move was in any way a reaction to the ongoing Range matter, and said the timing of the redemption letter was consistent with its plans to implement annual liquidity events for equity holders.
