Endeavor To Lay Off 250 Employees Due To Coronavirus

Topline: Talent agency Endeavor has begun laying off workers due to dropping revenue as the coronavirus forces both Hollywood and the sports industry to shut down. In its first round of layoffs, the agency—which includes entertainment agency WME, fashion and athletic agency IMG and mixed martial arts powerhouse UFC—let go about 250 staffers.

• The first round of layoffs affects those who cannot do their jobs at home, such as groundskeepers, restaurant workers and staff of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, a school for aspiring professional athletes.
• CEO Ariel Emanuel and executive chairman Patrick Whitesell will forego the rest of their seven-figure 2020 salaries.
• A companywide memo said that that further measures would be taken that will affect the employment and pay of the company’s 7,500 employees.
• The move came after an announcement last week WME would no longer buyback their equity shares next month, as was previously expected.
• WME followed UTA, another of Hollywood’s big agencies, which announced on March 23 that it would be cutting salaries, and Paradigm, which let off at least 100 employees last week.

Big Number: $4.6 billion. That’s how much debt Endeavor had as of last August, just before it pulled its plans to go public. It’s already in a vulnerable position, and with its revenue drivers at a standstill, that vulnerability will only grow.

Further Reading: Talent agencies are one of many parts of the entertainment industry that will be hit by the coronavirus, as concerts and sporting events are cancelled and movie theaters shut down, the total hit will add up to tens of billions of dollars, and that’s not to mention the many behind-the-scenes workers, from janitors and ticket collectors to costume designers and technicians, who are out of a job.