3Arts Buys OManagement and A&A Management // The News Talent Opp, Studios as Talent Buyers, and Sports Dealmaking

August 15, 2025 by  Chris Erwin

RockWater Roundup

M&A analysis of the creator economy to make you a better operator and investor.

Today we discuss 3Arts Entertainment’s acquisition of OManagement, a news and personality talent management firm, and A&A Management, a sports and entertainment representation firm. We analyze deal details, strategic rationale, Hollywood studios doubling down on talent acquisitions, the opportunity in news talent, and continued consolidation in sports representation.

Let’s break it down…

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–TARGET #1: OManagement–

Overview

  • Boutique news and personality talent management firm
  • Small team including Chelsea Sells (Agent and Chief of Staff) and Bea Fagan (Director of Biz Ops)
  • Specializes in news, journalism, and personality-driven talent
  • Founded in 2018 by Olivia Metzger
  • Based in NY 

Company Highlights

  • Clients span major networks: NBC, Fox News, MSNBC
  • Focus on both on-air and off-air news talent

Top Talent Clients

  • Craig Melvin (Today anchor) 
  • Kristen Welker (Meet the Press moderator)
  • Harris Faulkner (Fox News anchor)
  • Steve Kornacki (NBC News)
  • Ari Melber (MSNBC)

Business Lines

  • News & Media Talent Management…
  • Brand & Media Strategy Development
  • Contract Negotiation & Career Management
  • Production & Content Consulting
  • Strategic Partnerships & Monetization
  • NOTE: Biz model is prob a 10 to 20% share of gross talent bookings

Founder Story

  • Olivia Metzger brings 25+ years of talent management experience
  • Previously VP of Talent Recruitment and Development for NBC Stations Group
  • Spent 8 years at CAA building up the agency’s television news department

Capital Markets History

  • Jul ’25: Acquired by 3Arts Entertainment

 

–TARGET #2: A&A Management–

Overview

  • Sports and entertainment talent management firm
  • Focus on professional athlete representation and brand-building
  • Founded in 2011 by twin brothers Aaron and André Eanes
  • Based in Cleveland, Ohio
  • 5+ associated members on LI

Company Highlights

  • Clients across media, fashion, business, and philanthropy

Top Talent Clients

  • Travis Kelce (NFL Player)
  • Jonathan Kuminga (NBA Player)
  • Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland (NBA Player)
  • Camille Kostek (Model, Host, Actress)

Business Lines

  • Athlete & Entertainer Management…
  • Brand Building & Partnerships
  • Business Ventures & Investment Advisory
  • Content Production & Monetization
  • Wealth Management & Financial Planning
  • NOTE: Biz model is prob a 10 to 20% share of gross talent bookings, and TBD producer fees

Founder Story

  • Founded company after watching ESPN’s “30 for 30: Broke” documentary
  • Vision to help athletes make sound business decisions and avoid going broke
  • André Eanes focuses on business development and wealth management
  • Aaron Eanes handles marketing and branding

Capital Markets History

  • Jul ’25: Acquired by 3Arts Entertainment
  • Dec ‘23: Raised $500K of debt financing from Huntington Bancshares

 

–BUYER: 3Arts Entertainment–

Overview

  • Leading talent management and TV / film production company
  • Founded in 1991 by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg, and Howard Klein
  • 180+ employees via LinkedIn associated members
  • HQ’d in LA with NY office

Company Highlights

  • Majority owned by Lionsgate Studios Corp since 2018
  • Led by Co-CEOs Brian Weinstein and Michael Rotenberg
  • Notable productions include The Office, Parks and Recreation, King of the Hill, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Business Lines

  • Talent management for actors, writers, directors, comedians
  • Television and film production
  • Content development and packaging

Capital Markets History

  • Jun ‘25: Acquired OManagement
  • Jun ‘25: Acquired A&A Management
  • May ‘18: Acquired by LionsGate Entertainment for $166.6M 

 

–BUYER OWNER: Lionsgate–

Overview

  • Hollywood studio
  • Releases 30-40 films per year, incl 12 wide theatrical releases
  • 100 shows across scripted and unscripted
  • Recently spun out Starz cable network
  • 20,000+ title film and TV library
  • Publicly traded on NYSE: LION

Financials

(via public filings and stockanalysis.com)

  • LTM Mar ‘25 (their fiscal year)…
  • Revenue: $4B (down 1.7% YoY)
  • EBITDA $397M (down 15.1% YoY)

Stock performance

  • Price: $6.55 (8.14.25)
  • MoM: Down 6.4%
  • YTD: Down 7.6%

Valuation

  • Mkt cap $1.9B
  • Debt $4.1B
  • Enterprise value: $5.8B
  • Revenue multiple: 1.5x
  • EBITDA multiple: 15x

 

–DEAL DETAILS–

Overview

  • OManagement announced June 6, 2025
  • A&A Management announced June 2, 2025
  • Financial terms undisclosed for both transactions

Strategic Rationale

  • Market Expansion: 3Art’s is doubling down into high-growth sports and news talent sectors
  • Cultural Shift: Athletes and journalists increasingly becoming brands themselves
  • Cross-Selling Opportunities: Leverage 3Arts’ film / TV production capabilities for talent opportunities, as well as brand and buyer relationships of newly acquired firms for 3Arts existing clients 
  • Geographic Diversification: Strengthen NYC presence through OManagement
  • Full-Service Ecosystem: Create comprehensive talent representation across entertainment, sports, and news

Post-Deal Operations

  • Both firms maintain their specialized focus areas
  • Aaron and André Eanes become partners, will oversee 3Arts sports division
  • Olivia Metzger joins as partner and co-head of 3Arts NYC office
  • Chelsea Sells (OManagement) joins 3Arts team


–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–

  • The 2 deals could signal a new era of growth through M&A for 3Arts. 
  • Both company acquisitions were announced within the same week back in early June. This is noteworthy, since there’s no public record of 3Arts acquiring any other companies in its 34 year history (though there could be some smaller acquisitions and acquihires that were kept out of the trades, DM me if so). 
  • My bet is that the new dealmaking is the result of 3Arts, and its studio owner Lionsgate, seeing the rapid consolidation of the talent representation landscape, and not wanting to fall behind its increasingly well-financed peers. I think of deals Entertainment360 and new private equity backer Carlyle (our deal analysis), and Innovative Artists and new backer Coral Tree. Further, Lionsgate is facing its own challenges (more on that below), and may look at talent as a growth vehicle / premium asset in its portfolio that’s worth doubling down on. Of note, these deals are collectively rather subscale, estimated to bring over less than 10 new team members to 3Arts. But they’re still deals that reflect growth in new talent representation areas, and a growing team. 

 

  • Hollywood Studios are becoming aggressive acquirers of talent management businesses. 
  • We think of Propagate’s May 2025 acquisition of Parker Management (our deal analysis), and Skybound’s May 2025 acquisition of Nine Four Entertainment (see bottom of same article) for digital talent. I put these 2 studios in the “independents” category. 
  • The next step up in studio size and scale are the “mini majors”, including Lionsgate, Legendary, STX, and MGM (now owned by Amazon). We haven’t seen any of these studios acquire any talent rep businesses in recent years, other than Lionsgate acquiring a majority stake in 3Arts back in 2018. Therefore, and similar to my point above, is that this deal is noteworthy in that a larger cohort of Hollywood studios is focusing on the up-and-coming talent rep space.
  • The next largest studio tier are the “majors”, like Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. Again, I don’t know of any talent rep M&A history here. 
  • Overall, my guess is that the independent Hollywood studios will be the most aggressive for the foreseeable future as potential talent co buyers. They have more flexibility in their operating models, M&A mandates, and governance. Further, and most importantly, is that most talent rep co’s range between 6 to low 8 figures of EBITDA. That means they just don’t move the needle enough for the mini majors nor majors to be aggressive buyers just yet – these large studios have much bigger fish to fry for the time being, like closing recent multibillion exits (e.g. Paramount selling to Skydance for $8.4B) or doing multi-billion $ licensing deals (e.g. Disney paying $1.8B for WWE rights). But let’s see where we are in a few years… 

 

  • Lionsgate’s studio + talent management model creates competitive advantage in modern entertainment ecosystem.
  • Below are 2 excerpts from our Parker Management / Propagate deal analysis (our deal analysis). They’re worth highlighting again here, as it speaks to the rationale for a studio / talent biz combination, in this case Lionsgate + 3Arts and the recently acquired 2 talent businesses, and the advantage of having scaled talent access…
  • A content studio expanding into talent management. 
  • “By owning content production and multiple talent representation brands under one roof, Propagate will have a few key advantages. They’ll be able to package multiple talent together, from writers and directors to actors and influencers, for various creative projects. This will accelerate development and also help improve the likelihood of project greenlights and success. The studio will also be able to keep more fees in house (e.g. producing + talent commissions + marketing), and improve overall project margin.
  • Further, Propagate will be a more attractive destination for talent seeking a full-service creative ecosystem – an in-house studio not only provides more direct access to premium content projects ranging from film and TV to streaming and digital-native shows, but also mentorship from studio execs and producers who can guide the content and storytelling aspirations of up and coming talent clients.”
  • The advantage of (1) traditional and digital talent under one roof, and (2) a scaled talent roster.
  • “Propagate’s business model as a content and film studio relies heavily on traditional talent such as actors, directors, and comedians to anchor its productions. Maintaining direct access to Hollywood talent provides a strategic advantage in securing premium projects and productions. At the same time, digital talents, such as influencers, creators, and podcasters are important for driving audience engagement for brand marketers and entertainment partners, particularly to younger demographics. By investing in both traditional and digital talent, Propagate stays relevant across shifting media consumption habits.
  • Further, having a large and diverse talent roster makes it easier for talent buyers, ranging from brand marketers to entertainment co’s to newco incubators, to find and engage best-fit talent partners. Critical mass matters, and explains why Hollywood’s talent agencies have scaled and consolidated (with the support of private equity backers) so aggressively over the past decade. Consolidators of talent management firms are now following a similar playbook, which we’ve written about extensively on our M&A deal blog.” 

 

  • Rumors that 3Arts was seeking $250M in new funding, Lionsgate financial position, and end game for 3Arts.
  • In Jan 2025 Bloomberg reported that 3Arts was seeking $250M in new funding to finance expansion, with a focus on areas like sports and news, and more production. 3Arts is one of the last major “traditional” Hollywood management firms, similar to Entertainment 360, which just sold a minority stake to PE shop Carlyle. While 3Arts has a large “mini major” studio Lionsgate as its parent co, the cash position of Lionsgate ($186M cash on hand) is much more limited VS the deep pockets of a firm like Carlyle (billions). And like I noted in a paragraph above, 3Arts doesn’t want to fall behind its well financed peers as the talent industry consolidates and becomes increasingly competitive.
  • Speaking of financing, let’s spotlight the financial position of its parent co, Lionsgate, which would typically be a source of strategic capital. The studio is facing a challenging content buyers market, which we discussed in our deep dive analysis of SpringHIll merging with Fulwell 73. This has challenged Lionsgate’s financial performance; FY 2025 revenue is down 1.7%, and EBITDA is down 15.1%. This has put downward pressure on Lionsgate stock price, which has declined 7.6% YoY. Recent strategic efforts to bolster its studio value include the recent spin-off of Starz, a premium cable network and streamer that it bought for $4.4B in 2016. As of May 2025, Starz returned to being a standalone public co, now trading on the NASDAQ.
  • And just last month, there were reports suggesting that Lionsgate may be in preliminary talks to sell to Legendary, another Hollywood “mini major” studio. This raises the question for how long 3Arts remains within Lionsgate. Possible endgame scenarios for 3Arts include being spun out to a new owner, selling a minority or majority stake, or staying put if Lionsgate doubles down on studio + talent expansion. Overall, the situation is highly dynamic, and I’m curious to how this will all net out!

 

  • Traditional news media is broken. New digital-native journalists are on the rise, creating a major opportunity for modern talent reps.
  • More and more journalists are leaving TV networks, publishers, and newspapers to build their own D2C media businesses. They’re starting their own newsletters on Substack, YouTube channels, TikTok feeds, and podcasts. In turn, they’re becoming their own brands as traditional media fragments.
  • There are many examples here – Ben Smith left BuzzFeed News and co-founded Semafor, a global digital news platform; Matt Yglesias left Vox to start “Slow Boring” newsletter; Casey Newton left the Verge to start “Platformer” newsletter; Taylor Lorenz left the Washington Post to launch independent tech / culture reporting on Substack and TikTok…the list goes on. This is becoming big business, and traditional media is starting to re-think their news and talent business models – specifically, the departure of top political and news personalities from Fox (e.g. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly), was one of the key drivers behind the landmark Fox’s acquisition of Red Seat Ventures in Jan 2025 (our deal analysis). 
  • During COVID, John Krasinski’s Some Good News on YouTube showed how news fans seek alternative news media formats to traditional news fare. Today, we’re increasingly seeing audiences, across all ages and not just youths, migrate to modern social and podcast-native alternative news formats. I think of All In Podcast, where 4 “besties” from Silicon Valley cover a range of topics from finance to politics to luxury lifestyle (and recently launched a premium Tequila brand), to YouTuber Tim Pool’s livestreaming news media network, and on-the-ground real-time war coverage on TikTok in Ukraine.
  • Our takeaway from all this is that there’s a massive opportunity in the evolving news media ecosystem. From building modern news networks (further building on top of early social news networks like The Young Turks and NowThis), to those companies building support services for these new digital and D2C journalists, like ad sales and talent management. 
  • Case in point, we’re hearing a lot more from talent rep insiders that they’re focusing on signing fast-growing talent news personalities. Some of these firms have already built meaningful news talent divisions (keeping them anonymous per their request). We’re therefore not surprised by this OManagement deal, and we expect to start seeing a lot more activity in this space. Personally, I’d love to see a modern news media and talent rep outfit represent personalities on both sides of the political aisle here in the US – I haven’t seen anyone crack that code yet, but there’d be fun innovation in content formats, would set a great new precedent for productive political discourse and talent collaborations, and would probably generate great business ROI 😉

 

  • A&A Management focuses on athlete deals off the field, which is an increasingly lucrative place to be.
  • Neither A&A Management nor 3Arts employs league-certified agents, which means they don’t negotiate player or league contracts…which historically has been the largest fee generator in athlete representation, particularly when there are long-term contracts ranging from tens to hundreds of millions. For sports contract negotiations, A&A works alongside clients’ league-certified agents.
  • Instead, A&A focuses on brand strategy, sponsorships, media opportunities, and other off-field business ventures. This model lets A&A spend its time on building personal brands, securing endorsement deals, launching businesses, and producing content. And as part of the acquisition, 3 Arts will help A&A’s clients manage their lines of business across more media opportunities like film, TV, and gaming. Over time, as more and more brand dollars move into athlete-led media, and athletes increasingly become successful newco and IP launchers, this part of the athlete industry is becoming increasingly valuable to participate in.
  • For example, A&A client Travis Kelce demonstrates a new reality, where athletes transcend sports through media and other business ventures, like the Kelce Jam festival, and New Heights podcast (where girlfriend Taylor Swift just revealed her new album!). A&A’s focus on “entrepreneurial talent” aligns with athletes becoming multi-platform brands, which is part of the macro creator economy trends we cover extensively on our deal blog. This trend explains sports management and advisory M&A activity, like CAA Sports acquiring Portas Consulting in May 2025, Wasserman buying SportPlus in May 2025, and Wasserman buying our client Long Haul management in 2024, a sports and gaming-focused creator rep business (our deal analysis).

I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.

DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris@wearerockwater.com

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