IMG acquires Art & Commerce
Written on February 15, 2007
Huge news in the industry. IMG Fashion, the fashion division whose holdings include IMG Models, FashionWireDaily and various Fashion Weeks has acquired Art + Commerce, arguably the premiere photography representation agency.
What does this mean for the industry at large? Is this the harbinger of a new consolidation trend for the larger photography agencies? How exactly will they integrate A+C into the IMG empire?
Read the press release here
Filed in: Photo Agency.
Hello,
I think it’ s the biggest conflict of interest of the history of fashion. America is the country of check and balances, of competition. This operation will kill competition, creating a monstre which will monopolize the industry.
warm regards,
AL
First of all, thanks to Angelo for being the inaugural commenter on Avisualsociety.com!
But who is the competition? That’s what I am trying to understand here, the benefits of this merger. The A+C photographers could pretty much use whoever they wanted from IMG for whatever campaign, whenever they wanted. (When meisel calls, you run)
For IMG I can see that they guarantee their models will be more highly placed and can on their end attract more top end talent…but they’re already the top ranked Women’s agency (according to Models.com anyways). Perhaps this would be one of the jewels in the IMG crown.
I can’t see this as much more than a large retirement fund for the top level management at A+C.
Retirement fund indeed … Word on the street now is that the agency’s principle partners didn’t inform ANY of the A+C talent about the pending sale until the very day of the press release. People are pissed; lots of departures expected this summer… Put Page Six on this story.