EXCLUSIVE: CAA has laid off a number of staff in its global TV division and is centralizing the team to the U.S. and UK.
We understand that staffers based in countries such as Mexico, Africa, Germany and the UK have been made redundant; less than 10 people have been affected.
One of CAA’s most prominent global TV agents, Stockholm-based Pete Stone, is relocating to London. Stone moved to Stockholm nearly four years ago when ICM Partners – prior to its CAA acquisition – took a minority stake in Swedish agency Albatros. In London, CAA rival UTA acquired storied British agency Curtis Brown in 2022.
Details of CAA’s move to centralize global TV to the U.S. and London are still being ironed out and there could be more strategic shifts to come, we understand. A spokesman for CAA, which employees about 3,400 people, declined comment.
CAA had been hiring international TV agents in recent years in up-and-coming territories to attempt to ride the wave of huge, non-English language successes such as Squid Game, Money Heist and Lupin. Clients include Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, Portrait of a Lady on Fire star Adèle Haenel and Coming 2 America’s Nomzamo Mbatha.
Sources told Deadline the move to centralize is a reflection of buyers retrenching to more established territories. For example, Deadline revealed in January that Prime Video was laying off staffers in Africa, the Middle East and North Africa regions and “rebalancing” investment towards Amazon’s European content division. The streamers have made similar moves in Southeast Asia, we reported earlier this week.
Deadline is told, nonetheless, that CAA remains focused on non-U.S. markets and the move to anchor in the U.S. and UK is being viewed as an evolution not a rowback.
The layoffs are the second tranche from CAA to be revealed in recent weeks. Last month, we told you that less than 20 people were being impacted in content areas that have been the hardest hit by the ongoing Hollywood contraction.
Headquartered in LA, CAA has offices across the U.S., in London and the likes of Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore.