Paradigm CEO Sam Gores’ Brother Tom Gores Takes Ownership

Sam Gores’ brother Tom Gores and his funding firm Crescent Drive Media has taken an possession stake in Paradigm, the company’s CEO Sam Gores introduced in a letter to staff Thursday, obtained by TheWrap.

The transfer is a monetary step to assist Paradigm in weathering the coronavirus disaster but in addition to “invest in future growth,” Gores’ letter reads. The Gores have additionally retained Bruce Rosenblum, a former Warner Bros. govt within the studio’s TV group, as an advisor on the company’s progress.

“I want to thank everyone for their dedication, hard work and continued focus on serving our clients and agency and helping to position our company for a strong future,” Gores mentioned. “With an expanded ownership team, financial stability and creative advisers like Bruce to help us assess new opportunities, I look forward to our next chapter.”

Rosenblum spent 26 years at Warner Bros. together with 14 as president of Warner Bros. Television Group. Following that he was president at Legendary Television and Digital Media between June 2013 via May 2016, and he was then president of Business Operations for Disney and ABC for a yr between September 2016 and June 2017. Currently, he’s on the board of Cox Media Group and was additionally the chairman and CEO of the Television Academy between 2012 and 2016.

Paradigm has been hit laborious by the coronavirus shutdown, with two-thirds of its income coming from music, together with the stay occasions and live performance excursions which have all been postponed or canceled on account of the virus, together with a few of the company’s largest purchasers equivalent to Billie Eilish and Kenny Chesney. Because music is a seasonal enterprise with extra releases and excursions coming within the hotter months of the yr, the company usually borrows cash through the winter months and repays the loans with summer time tour and launch earnings.

Back on May 20, Gores denied a report that sports activities and media mogul Casey Wasserman would purchase Paradigm.

“There is no agreement to sell Paradigm, nor is any sale imminent,” Gores wrote in an inner memo to his employees.

But a person with data of the matter instructed TheWrap on the time that Wasserman was in talks to purchase the company.

And in March, Gores sparked what insiders described as a ‘f–ing war zone’ throughout the firm when he tried to stem these losses by reducing music agent salaries by 50% after which reinstated them, as TheWrap solely reported on the time. Agents banded collectively and threatened to go away, whereas others publicly complained that they felt Gores used Paradigm earnings to fund his lavish private life-style, insiders instructed TheWrap in April.

“He ended up not cutting people because of negative press on the firings,” an insider instructed TheWrap on the time. “They effectively held him hostage.”

Gores as a substitute opted for extra broadly utilized pay cuts all through the corporate, starting along with his personal, which was reduce in full.

See Gores’ full announcement letter beneath.

Dear Colleagues,

In an alliance that additional strengthens our enterprise, I’m happy to announce that Crescent Drive Media (CDM), an funding automobile owned by my brother, Tom Gores, has taken an possession curiosity in Paradigm. This is certainly one of a number of vital steps that put us in a monetary place not solely to climate this disaster, however to put money into future progress.

In that context, I’m additionally happy to announce that the possession of Paradigm, which incorporates Tom and me, has retained Bruce Rosenblum as an adviser on progress and funding alternatives. Bruce is an skilled and succesful business veteran. He spent 26 years at Warner Bros., together with 14 years as President of Warner Bros. Television Group the place he oversaw the complete Warner Bros. portfolio of tv companies, together with worldwide manufacturing, conventional and digital distribution globally, and broadcasting.

Subsequent to his time at Warner Bros., Bruce was President…