Latest news with #WME
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Jimmie Johnson joins hollywood agency, follows Tom Brady's playbook to build post-racing empire
NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson just made another big move, only this time, it wasn't in the driver's seat. Days after hitting 700 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Coca-Cola 600, the seven-time champion has, according to journalist Adam Stern, signed with top talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME), and his off track ambitions are getting serious. Advertisement The deal puts both Jimmie Johnson and his team, Legacy Motor Club, under WME's umbrella for full representation. Think media, endorsements, brand partnerships and more. It's a smart move for a guy who's done just about everything behind the wheel. If you've followed Johnson's career, you know Jimmie Johnson has never been one to sit still. Along with helping lead Legacy Motor Club (home to the №42 Toyota driven by John Hunter Nemechek and the №43 piloted by Erik Jones) he's also still running select races in the №84. But since his full-time racing retirement, he's been putting more thought into what comes after life on track. Enter WME. The agency that has helped people such as Tom Brady and Serena Williams use their sports fame to build thriving businesses. Johnson's looking to do the same. Advertisement Also Read:: WATCH: Kyle Larson crashes out twice in one day after $3 million double attempt IndyCar: The 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 The NASCAR legend has already ventured into media with his company, Charlie Meatball Productions. He's also involved in real estate and hospitality ventures. With WME now, things can move quickly. No matter if it's brand campaigns, television work, Legacy sponsorships or new ideas to interact with the audience. The underlying goal is to create something bigger . Jimmie Johnson wants to keep pushing boundaries the way he always has, just now with a different kind of horsepower behind him. As he told Variety when launching Charlie Meatball Productions: 'We have plenty of irons in the fire,' Jimmie Johnson says. 'I'm looking for that passion in the partners we bring in, from the person telling the story to the people who are surrounded by it.' Also Read:: 4 Reasons Kevin Harvick Advocates for Canceling the All-Star Race
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NASCAR Champion Jimmie Johnson Races to WME
WME gets to rev its talent-representation engines with a new client, NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will rely on the agency for representation in all areas, and to extend his influence via team ownership, working with brands, entrepreneurial pursuits and media including his Sirius XM podcast, 'Never Settle,' which Johnson hosts with Marty Smith. More from Variety Jessel Taank Signs With WME (EXCLUSIVE) Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson Sign With WME (EXCLUSIVE) Noah Hawley Signs With WME Johnson won five consecutive NASCAR Cup Series titles between 2006 and 2010 and is recognized as one of the most decorated drivers in motorsports history. His seven overall NASCAR Cup wins are tied for the most-ever won by a driver. He has accumulated 83 career wins, including two Daytona 500 victories. Until 2019, Johnson was the only driver to have qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs every single year since the event launched in 2004. He holds the record for the most consecutive and total playoff appearances. He has made appearances in films and TV series including 'Herbie: Fully Loaded,' 'Las Vegas' and 'Superstore.' He once voiced an animated lobster named Jimmie on the animated kids' program 'Bubble Guppies,' and appeared in the music video for the Avett Brothers' song 'Ain't No Man.' He currently drives on a part-time basis the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club, in which he holds an ownership stake. WME will also provide strategic representation for the racing entity. Johnson is a lifelong racer, having gotten his start with motorcycles when he was just a child. He began to compete in off-road series, then stock-car races before eventually moving on to some of NASCAR's biggest events. Best of Variety 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Rio Ferdinand QUITS TNT Sports: Man United legend announces exit
Rio Ferdinand has left TNT Sport following more than a decade with the broadcaster. Mail Sport revealed in March the former England and Manchester United captain was set to quit at the end of the season in a major blow for the station. Insiders at TNT have insisted that the decision was 'an amicable parting of the ways' but it is understood that Ferdinand was the driving force behind the move. The 46-year-old has a growing portfolio of business interests, along with a young family, and recently his management company New Era signed a partnership with Beverly Hills-based talent agency giants WME. Ferdinand, who has a following of more than 30m across various platforms, was offered a new contract by TNT some months ago, but it went unsigned, much to the dismay of bosses. The door remains open, and he may return for certain elements of coverage next season. In a statement released at noon today, Ferdinand said: 'I have made the difficult decision to step away from TNT sports after the Champions League final. Statement: After ten incredible years, I have made the difficult decision to step away from @tntsports after the Champions League Final…. — Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) May 28, 2025 Rio Ferdinand has announced his exit from TNT Sports after 10 years of broadcasting He reportedly plans to relocate to Dubai with his wife Kate nine years after meeting her there They are 'seriously considering' relocating with their children and have looked at houses 'Since retiring from football it has been a privilege talking about the game I love for a decade for sports fans watching on BT Sport and TNT Sports. 'I want to acknowledge the tremendous support from the team behind the scenes whose hard work often goes unseen but has been essential to our success. 'To everyone at TNT Sports, we have a brilliant end to the season to look forward to on Saturday and for now all focus will be on what I think could go down as one of the great European finals. 'The network continues to thrive with more rights than ever. I know I look forward to following its progress and the exciting future that lies ahead. 'Lastly I would like to thank my family and my management company New Era for their ongoing support. They have supported me to travel all over Europe following the best players and watching the best matches.' A switch in focus to the US would make sense. With the World Cup taking place across the Atlantic next year, WME are focussing on securing opportunities in the US for Ferdinand both on and off the screen. They currently represent the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Alba and Maggie Gyllenhaal. 'I'm excited about what the future holds, spending more time with my family focusing on Rio Ferdinand Presents and my other business interests,' he added. 'I hope to stay connected with all of you in different capacities. Thank you once again for everything.' He is reportedly planning to move to Dubai with his wife Kate Ferdinand. They share kids Cree and Shae, while Kate is also stepmother to Lorenz, 18, Tate, 16, and Tia, 13, from Rio's marriage to late wife Rebecca Ellison. According to the Sun, Ferdinand and Kate are 'seriously considering' relocating with their children and have already started looking at swanky properties and schools. The couple would base themsleves in The Gulf and travel back to the UK for work, giving Rio opportunity to boost his business portfolio aboard. The 46-year-old has a host of other business ventures, including Rio Ferdinand Presents Rio and Kate, who married in 2019, met back in 2016 through mutual friends while they were both on holiday in Dubai (pictured) The couple would base themsleves in The Gulf and travel back to the UK for work, while also giving Rio opportunity to boost his business portfolio abroad A source told the publication: 'Rio and Kate are seriously considering being based out in the Gulf and are looking for a sprawling home with plenty of bedrooms. 'They love the lifestyle and sunny weather and have lots of friends out there. It's a very safe place for families and offers a healthy lifestyle, which suits them well.' 'It holds a special place in their hearts as that's where they met and both could easily travel back and forth for their work commitments in the UK'. MailOnline contacted their representatives at the time of the report. Rio and Kate, who wed in 2019, met back in 2016 through mutual friends while they were both on holiday in Dubai. Kate marked eight years since she met her husband as she shared a heartwarming throwback snap of the couple together in December. The couple were back in the UAE to ring in 2025 with Kate sharing a cosy snap of the them enjoying a night out. Alongside the post, she wrote: 'Rio and I met eight years ago yesterday. A source said: 'It holds a special place in their hearts as that's where they met and both could easily travel back and forth for their work commitments in the UK' 'Who would have thought that fast forward to now we would be back in the place we met, married, with two more beautiful children, five in total 'It's crazy to think that a chance meeting, and so many hurdles thrown our way we would be ready to see in the new year as a family of seven (just missing our Lorenz). It come after the couple watched the footballer's eldest son Lorenz make his senior football debut. He made his debut for seventh-tier-side Havant and Waterlooville and secured a 3-1 win, after joining on work experience. His Manchester United star father was in attendance for the match at the Alfred Davis Memorial Ground in Marlow, alongside Kate.
Int'l Business Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
ZIGChain's Wealth Management Engine Is Redefining On-Chain Capital Growth
The crypto space is often dismissed as speculative, with few real-world use cases and overly complex tools that leave most users behind. Blockchain networks like ZIGChain are rewriting that narrative by building practical, user-centric infrastructure — starting with the Wealth Management Engine ( WME ), a decentralized framework for creating, managing, and scaling investment strategies. WME offers a decentralized investment framework that improves financial accessibility — no spreadsheets, no multi-protocol juggling, no gatekeepers. It brings together institutional investors, wealth managers, and everyday users in one unified platform, enabling unique investment strategies and revenue generation for all stakeholders. The Problem: Crypto Promised Access — But Delivered Complexity Although the crypto industry has tried to solve legacy finance's gatekeeping problems, most web3 protocols have a difficult user interface. Emerging sectors like real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, with a $30 trillion market potential, have exposed a critical flaw: access without usability is meaningless. Platforms often struggle to maintain consistent trading volumes. Token holders face significant challenges in rebalancing portfolios or finding suitable exit positions. Meanwhile, institutional investors remain hesitant to participate without compliant infrastructure, deep liquidity, and sustainable price discovery mechanisms. Most web3 products build sophisticated technicalities without focusing on professional-grade asset management, enhanced user experience, and an easily accessible investor base. WME aims to solve the problem by creating a novel financial user experience for digital asset investments. Building The Foundations Of Accessible On-chain Finance WME inherits Zignaly's Profit-Sharing ecosystem to create a protocol-native architecture for scalable and accessible on-chain investment strategies. By turning strategies into native digital assets, it offers retail investors a seamless interface for using its yield-generating services by abstracting away the complexities of investment strategy execution. Users participate by funding capital to receive strategy tokens, representing the corresponding yield and risk value. The engine enables the underlying infrastructure to handle compounding rewards, track portfolio performance, and automate fees while users simply hold tokens. Since the tokens represent a wealth manager-led strategy, users can participate in institutional-grade investments without manually executing portfolio rebalances and hedging. WME also integrates investment layers into a unified experience for users, as they don't need to juggle multiple protocols, fees, and bridges. This helps users to access yields through NAWA's aggregator vaults, trade on Oroswap , liquid stake tokens on Valdora , access meme tokens on , lend-borrow through Permapod, or participate in Zamanat , a Sharia-compliant RWA Marketplace, all with Fireblocks -guaranteed security standards. This isn't just democratizing wealth — it's also making it smarter and safer for institutions. Institutional investors can leverage WME for its auditability, built-in compliance mechanism, and automated fees. Tokenization service providers can transparently manage on-chain strategies and depend on a standardized delivery model, reducing operational costs. We are witnessing a shift from fragmented, speculative crypto to composable, secure, and accessible digital finance. This evolution empowers everyone — from first-time investors to institutional fund managers — to build, scale, and manage wealth directly on-chain. By making performance-based, programmable strategies a native part of the blockchain experience, ZIGChain is setting the foundation for decentralized capital growth at scale.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Huge paydays. Millions more in fines. 2 baseball agencies went to war, exposing a cutthroat industry
Four years ago, WME Sports, an arm of the entertainment behemoth Endeavor, wanted to supercharge its nascent baseball agent business. Its plan was one of brute force: throw an eye-popping $25 million at a pair of coveted baseball reps, in hopes of enticing them to break their multiyear contracts and leave their boss, Casey Close, the longtime agent representing Derek Jeter. Advertisement So began a legal fight that concluded with a 70-page arbitrator's ruling, one that provides an unvarnished view of a corner of the baseball world rarely illuminated to the public. The document brings into focus a sharp-elbowed business conducted in a world shaped by shifting allegiances and the unrelenting pressure to profit. In a previously unreported decision, arbitrator Michael Gottesman ruled that agents Jim Murray and Michael Stival flagrantly breached their contracts when they defected to the upstart WME from Close's firm, Excel Sports Management. Thirteen Excel players, including Ian Happ, Adam Ottavino and Anthony Volpe, absconded to WME Sports with the duo, while several more players left for other agencies. It added up to 'an unprecedented departure of baseball clients,' the arbitrator said, and 'a serious reputational loss' for Excel. The February 2024 ruling argued that if the fallout from such blatant contractual breaches had gone unchecked, the effect would have been devastating. 'What WME did here, if it turns out to be profitable, would destabilize the entire baseball representation industry,' Gottesman wrote. 'It would incentivize WME, with its massive resources, to gobble up more agents who are bound by contracts.' The gravity of the matter was reflected in the punishment. For the first time ever in a baseball-agent dispute, the arbitrator awarded punitive damages, ordering WME to pay Excel $4 million. That was part of a total award of more than $10 million, including, in some cases, the return of 90 percent of commissions gained from player salaries. 'Excel respects the confidentiality of the Major League Baseball Players Association's arbitration process and will have no comment,' Close said. WME Sports is now looking to get out of the baseball business. Spokesperson Marie Sheehy said that is for a reason unrelated to the Excel case, but rival agents believe finances are a contributor. Either way, the ruling was designed to send a clear message to the rest of the agent world: There is a steep price to pay for breaking the established boundaries governing a notoriously cutthroat industry. 'This case is exceptionally egregious,' Gottesman wrote in his ruling, which was obtained by The Athletic. 'WME knew full well that Murray and Stival would be breaching their contracts.' Close, Murray and Stival all had once enjoyed a prosperous relationship. Close had played pro ball, reaching Triple A in the New York Yankees' and Seattle Mariners' organizations. His fame, however, would not come as a player, but as an agent. After success at other firms, he was hired to build Excel into a juggernaut, and flourished in no small part because of a knack for spotting talent. Advertisement One of his first hires at Excel was Murray, who by then was an established agent known for his ability to recruit talent and negotiate contracts. A few years later, Close poached Stival, a bright lawyer who had worked at the players' union since college. Stival had made his bones as an arbitration guru, prompting other agencies to pursue his services. Close was the only one who succeeded. The trio led Excel to years of growth, and Murray in particular became a powerhouse. Close kept his office in New York, where only two other Excel baseball agents shared the space — Murray and Stival. Close testified that the combination of Murray and Stival's skillsets was like 'one plus one equals four.' Murray and Stival were in Excel's long-term plans. At the end of 2020, the private equity firm Shamrock showed interest in investing in Excel. But first the prospective investors needed assurance the agency would be in good hands for years to come. It was within this context, according to testimony, that Close called Murray and Stival 'the two most important people in the baseball division.' He identified the pair as the baseball division's future leaders. The investment went through. Less than a year later, the former partners would be duking it out in court. The product of multiple mergers of powerful Hollywood talent groups, Endeavor includes much more than WME Sports. Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson, Rachel Maddow, John Mulaney and Barack and Michelle Obama are among the talent touted on across various divisions. Both World Wrestling Entertainment and Ultimate Fighting Championship are under the Endeavor umbrella as well. For two years, WME searched for the right agents to lead its fledgling baseball division. Going into 2021, the firm carried just four baseball reps and only a few clients. One was star Carlos Correa. The shortstop was approaching free agency and the company wanted more firepower in hopes of retaining him. (It eventually lost him anyway.) Advertisement WME had initially limited its search to agents not bound by contracts to their firms, but that proved fruitless. That led to a shift in tactics: the company would now try to pry away agents under contract. Murray was at the top of the list. He took a meeting with WME in March 2021, but said he was uninterested. He recommended his colleague Stival in his place, but nothing moved forward. Within a couple weeks, WME reps circled back, and this time, according to testimony, they came with a green light from top executives to make Murray and Stival a financial offer 'that would make them interested.' At the time, Murray was already the highest-paid agent across all of Excel's divisions, Gottesman wrote. Since joining Excel in 2012, he had been instrumental in growing the baseball group from fewer than 25 clients to over 175. Excel rewarded him with a five-year deal through 2024 that paid him $1 million in base salary annually, plus bonuses. To lure Murray, Endeavor blew that away with a package totaling more than $16 million on a six-year deal through 2027. It started out with a signing bonus of $1 million and equity worth $800,000. His annual base salary then would grow over time: $1.5 million for the first year, followed by $2.25 million in year two, $2.5 million in the third and fourth years, and $2.65 million in the final two years. Murray was also eligible for bonuses. Stival too netted a significant pay raise over six years. WME gave him a financial package worth about $9.8 million. It paid him four times more in base pay for 2022 and 2023 than what his Excel deal called for. 'WME is unique,' Gottesman wrote, 'capable of expending vast amounts of money to get what it wants. No other baseball agency has that capacity.' The aggressive approach worked. On Aug. 30, 2021, Murray and Stival finalized their lucrative deals. WME had seemingly met every demand. That included 'total indemnity' clauses, as Gottesman put it. The agents had asked to be protected if Excel filed a lawsuit over their exit, and WME agreed. Such language was unprecedented for WME, which at first had some high-level executives deny the request. Endeavor president Mark Shapiro stepped in and overruled them. Advertisement The next day at 2:30 p.m., Murray and Stival jointly called Close. His top lieutenants had spent most of the calendar year orchestrating their exit from the firm they had worked together to build. Now they were on Zoom tendering their immediate resignation. Close was blindsided. Rival agents smelled blood in the water. After Murray and Stival walked out the door, client defections began in less than two weeks. The tumult did not escape the notice of opportunists elsewhere. The case record includes a text message sent to a player from an agent at another company. 'I just know there's a ton of drama and s— at excel and would hate for you to be a victim of that,' the rival agent texted. 'You deserve nothing but the best.' Excel claimed the damages amounted to tens of millions. The legal dispute began with a lawsuit in state court in New York in 2021, but wound up in front of an arbitrator as required by MLBPA's agent regulations. The process was a heavy lift: eleven days of hearings, hundreds of exhibits, and 19 lawyers. 'The magnitude of the proceedings and importance of the case explain the enormous time required,' Gottesman wrote. Accusations flew. Excel alleged that Murray and Stival made off with confidential company information, one of them via a thumb drive. The two agents denied it, and Gottesman wrote Excel had not proved the allegation. Meanwhile, Murray and Stival believed Excel had breached a non-disparagement clause by besmirching their names to players. In one example, an Excel agent suggested Murray's presence at Excel had produced 'a decade of disaster.' Gottesman didn't find Excel liable on that front, though. Regardless, the overall result was clear: a near-total victory for Close and Excel, and hefty penalties for Endeavor. 'I have focused on the question [of] whether this case is different from all that preceded it. And I have concluded that it is,' Gottesman wrote. 'Prior disputes have involved issues that affected only the parties and inflicted no harm on the industry as a whole.' Advertisement The $4 million in punitive damages was just the beginning. WME not only had to pay Excel money it made off former Excel clients, but Gottesman ruled it owed the company for other clients it took on for a lengthy period — from Sept. 1, 2021, through March 31 of this year. The only exception was if WME could prove the player joined for reasons other than Murray and Stival. Agencies generally charge players 5 percent of their salaries and draft bonuses as a standard commission. For non-Excel players who arrived at WME from September 2021 through the end of 2023, Excel was owed 2.5 percent of their signing bonus and salary. For players who arrived at the firm from the start of 2024 through March 2025, it dropped to 2 percent of bonus and salary pay. But for the players who did come over from Excel, the cost was much steeper. That group included Adam Ottavino, Ian Happ, Michael Siani, Jack Leiter, Anthony Volpe, David Dahl, Sammy Siani, Zach McAllister, Greg Bird, Dellin Betances, Andy Pettitte, Nick Maldonado and Chip Maldonado. At the time of the decision, WME had already negotiated $98 million in salaries for the active players in that group. Gottesman ruled that through the date of the ruling, February 2024, Excel was owed virtually all of the commission back for those players who had absconded directly to WME — 90 percent of it, which amounts to 4.5 percent of the overall salary. On any contracts negotiated afterward for that group through March of this year, 70 percent of the commission had to go to Excel, or 3.5 percent of the overall salary. Then, for younger players who have yet to reach arbitration, such as Volpe, Excel might be able to recoup money too even beyond March 2025. If Murray and Volpe are still with WME when he reaches arbitration, then WME has to pay 30 percent of its commission on those years (1.5 percent of overall salary). And if they're still together when he arrives at free agency, WME owes 20 percent on his first free-agent contract (1 percent overall). Advertisement A similar set of rules applies to off-field money WME owes Excel, which is where a retired player like Pettitte enters the picture. The typical agent's commission for endorsements is 20 percent. Gottesman set up another sliding scale for Excel to recoup some of that money, too. One player was designated by the arbitrator as a 'special case.' Pitcher Jack Leiter, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, received a $7.9 million bonus in July 2021. A client of Murray's, Leiter hadn't formally signed a representation agreement with Excel when Murray left for WME. Excel is owed the full 5 percent commission of $399,600, plus interest. Rival agents believe the damages from the Excel case have contributed to a rough financial outlook for WME Sports, one they think has pushed the company to give up its foray into baseball. The Excel case cost WME $6 million in attorneys' fees, on top of the damages. Add in Murray and Stival's high salaries, and the firm's book of business likely hasn't grown enough to balance out the combined costs, other agents said. Sheehy, the WME Sports spokesperson, acknowledged that it is trying to shed its baseball business, but said it was because of a conflict of interest. Silver Lake, a private equity group, recently took Endeavor private. Inside Silver Lake is a different group that owns a collection of Minor League Baseball teams, Diamond Baseball Holdings. That poses a potential problem: the MLBPA forbids agents from also owning teams. 'WME's decision to divest its baseball business is unrelated to the confidential MLBPA arbitration ruling from 15 months ago,' Sheehy said. 'The agency is divesting its baseball business due to a conflict from Silver Lake's ownership of Diamond Baseball Holdings.' Some agents said they understand the start of June looms as an internal deadline for WME to figure out its plans. Advertisement 'The June 1 deadline is not accurate and we are working with the MLBPA to divest the baseball business in a timely manner,' Sheehy said. The MLBPA declined comment. When he issued his decision, Gottesman was concerned that his punishment could be insufficient, despite his intention of sending a message. He thought that by 2025, WME's baseball business might be 'robust.' 'I fear that my punitive damages award will fall short of extracting all profit from WME's tortious behavior,' Gottesman wrote. 'Murray and Stival are so talented that it is likely they will build an enormously profitable enterprise.' That fear might have been misplaced. (Top photo of Close: Kathy Willens / Associated Press)
