Zimmer: UTA narrowly avoided a disastrous music agency acquisition before COVID-19
Jeremy Zimmer · Hollywood CEO: How to Look Powerful in Any Room | Jeremy Zimmer · Apr 9, 2026 · at 18:12
Jeremy Zimmer, co-founder of United Talent Agency, shares an M&A deal that collapsed at the last minute before the pandemic.
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“Particularly right before the pandemic, we were trying to buy a very big agency, primarily because of its music business, and at the last minute, the seller couldn't control his colleagues, and the deal fell apart, and I was like, oh my god, I'm so embarrassed, terrible, and then the pandemic hit, and the music business went to zero, and we would have been Carrying a lot of debt, it would have been very disastrous. And, you know, yeah, would it have destroyed the company? No, but it would have been a very, very difficult thing to come back from.”
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