{"id":7998575,"date":"2026-04-13T06:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7998575"},"modified":"2026-04-13T08:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:39:46","slug":"michael-ovitz-umg-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/michael-ovitz-umg-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Ovitz Wants Back In. Will Hollywood Have Him?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure who\u2019s keeping Hollywood\u2019s bingo card, but <\/strong>the return of <\/strong>Michael Ovitz was definitely not on mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once considered the most powerful man in Hollywood, Ovitz now proposes to return to the entertainment industry he left behind \u2013 or more accurately, was driven from \u2013 with a plan by billionaire and investor Bill Ackman to buy Universal Music Group, one of only three major music publishers that control the vast majority of the global music publishing market and the home of megastars Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter, for $64 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the letter<\/a> Ackman sent the UMG board of directors last week, he proposes to buy a controlling stake in the company, with a current market cap of\u00a0$42 billion,\u00a0and that Ovitz, 79, \u201cone of the most recognized global entertainment executives,\u201d would become the chairman of the board, <\/strong>replacing Sherry Lansing. Lucian Grainge would remain the CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"CEO\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tBill Ackman's Pershing Square Submits $64.4 Billion Takeover Bid to Acquire Universal Music Group<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is something of a shock to those who haven\u2019t seen a sign of Ovitz in Hollywood for 20 years or so, since his final bid for relevance in running the Artist Management Group (AMG)<\/a> failed in 2002. He finally slunk out of the entertainment industry to do something else in Palo Alto \u2014 investing, mentoring tech entrepreneurs, advising mega-investors such as Marc Andreessen and investigating the wonders of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he has successfully built real clout in Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bullish on AI and bearish on entertainment, Ovitz advises CEO Alex Karp of Palantir Technologies, which is soaring on government defense and commercial contracts. Since the 2010s, he both invested and offered strategic counsel to Palantir through his firm Broad Beach Ventures. And according to the website of his company Treville Capital<\/a> he was instrumental in negotiating early commercial contracts for the company, which now has a $306 billion (you read right) market cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet Hollywood still pulls him back. Why, I wonder? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Michael
Barbara Walters, Michael Ovitz and Steven Spielberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the time he left, Ovitz was probably the most hated man in the industry, having twisted too many arms, betrayed too many partners, broken too many promises. Before that, he had been the town\u2019s singularly powerful broker, co-founding CAA in 1974 and building it for two decades into a powerhouse where he personally represented everyone from Barbara Streisand to Martin Scorsese to Meryl Streep, an endless A-list clientele at a time when talent commanded tens of millions of dollars for projects. He built a packaging model to which the Hollywood studios had to submit, and was known as a ruthless negotiator and strategist, a relentless flatterer and bully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undeniably, Ovitz was a huge success, but by the time he left CAA for a brief but disastrous tenure at the Walt Disney Company in 1995, the town was rooting for his failure.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why come back to a place that rejected him? It might be as simple as \u2013 he can\u2019t help it. Or maybe, as one corporate leader from his era told me, he’s seeking some kind of redemption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ovitz is a close advisor to Ackman. And the problem for Ackman, who bought 10 percent of UMG from Vivendi four years ago and now owns about 3 percent, was that UMG stock has been persistently moribund despite company growth. Since 2021, UMG has been listed on the Dutch stock exchange called Euronext, and since then, the share price has dropped 23% <\/a>from its \u20ac25.10 closing on the first day of its Euronext listing. Ackman was ready to sell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an individual close to the deal, it was Ovitz who proposed to Ackman to instead align with Lucian Grainge and buy the whole company. Ackman had previously advocated moving UMG off the Dutch exchange to list it on the S&P. Doing so, he believes, would draw investment from major institutional funds such as Blackrock, Vanguard and Fidelity, which are required to hold a percentage of all companies in the S&P. That alone is expected to drive the share price up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ovitz also believes he brings personal value to the deal: as a conduit for digital innovation, in fostering relationships with artists. And as a path back to that small circle of power brokers who run the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Anthropic\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tUniversal Music Group, Concord and More Sue Anthropic Over Alleged Piracy, With Potential $3 Billion in Damages<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

An individual close to UMG told me that Ovitz has only met Grainge a couple of times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing in the way of Ovitz\u2019s UMG ambition is the French Bollor\u00e9 family, the controlling shareholder of Vivendi, parent of Canal+, Havas and publisher Hachette, which owns 18 percent of the company. Vivendi, which they own, separately owns another 10 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly the Bollor\u00e9s need to agree to sell to make this happen and their posture is unclear. Ackman\u2019s bid claims to offer a 78% premium to UMG\u2019s stock price, which includes 5 euros per share<\/a> plus equity in the US-based new UMG. That might be a useful target for the Ovitz charm \u2014 he still has it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jack
Jack Nicholson and Michael Ovitz attend the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs on November 28, 2003 (Photo by Vince Bucci\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know Ovitz well, but I know for certain that despite the passage of years, there are some in Hollywood who still carry a grudge, or at the very least are wary of his reputation. The scars of his tenure at Disney hurt Michael Eisner\u2019s legacy after Eisner brought him in. Ovitz\u2019s split with his CAA founding partner Ron Meyer continued to send ripples through a community where Meyer remains well liked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Ovitz\u2019s legacy of agent-turned-dealmaker ruthlessness lives on, ironically not in the image of his own agency, CAA, where the elegant CEO Bryan Lourd operates quite differently, but more in the person of Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel, whose take-no-prisoners ethos echoes Lao-Tzu\u2019s \u201cArt of War,\u201d which Ovitz famously recommended as a playbook.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 2018 memoir, “Who is Michael Ovitz?” the former power broker owned some of the personal damage he wrought.  \u201cI was a control freak. A shape-shifting machine. A Terminator,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat was the image I took great care to project, anyway,\u201d he continued, adding, \u201cIt was an image I grew to hate.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may be what passes for an apology. Most of us have moved on. And the proposed UMG deal? The board and the market will decide. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\""Project\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tThe Optimism of \u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019 Is the Antidote to Hollywood's Doom Loop\u00a0<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group faces a takeover bid by shareholder Bill Ackman, with Ovitz to become chairman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":7998660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-full-width-with-ads","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":504342,"post_id":7302570}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"1dee58a6-43f6-4d1a-b280-850b428c6e36","nb_breaking_template":"pro-single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"WrapPRO","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555404,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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