WME is laying off 30 employees, as the company seeks to streamline operations amid industrywide shifts, Variety has confirmed.
The job cuts represent about 3% of the talent agency’s total headcount. Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead, the co-chairmen of WME, announced the layoffs in an internal memo Wednesday with the subject line “Update.”
“Our industry is undergoing profound change — from consolidation and shifting economics to new technology and evolving client needs,” the co-chiefs wrote. “At the same time, new platforms are creating more opportunities than ever for talent and creators to reach audiences around the world.”
The cuts come after Endeavor announced the closing of the deal to go private with private-equity firm Silver Lake in March 2025. With the move, Endeavor changed its name to WME Group, reflecting its refocusing on the representation business. Ari Emanuel, who founded the talent agency in 1995 and most recently served as CEO of Endeavor, assumed the role of executive chairman of WME Group (and received a $173.8 million cash payout from the transaction). Mark Shapiro is president and managing partner of WME. Emanuel currently also serves as CEO of TKO Group, the parent of WWE and UFC that Endeavor spun out in 2023, and Shapiro is its president and COO.
Since the go-private deal forming WME Group, Weitz and Muirhead wrote in the memo, “we’ve been working diligently to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing responsibilities, and removing bureaucracy, in a singular effort to stay out in front. As such, today we have made the difficult decision to reduce a number of roles across the agency.”
The WME co-chairmen said they expect “conversations with impacted individuals to be complete by the end of this week.”
“Looking ahead, we’re focused on shaping the agency for the future by building on our scale and experience and capitalizing on our industry-best capabilities and client strategy,” Weitz and Muirhead said in the memo.
The WME layoffs were first reported by Deadline.
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