ICM, Part 3: Rizvi & Agency Board Blow Off Chris Silbermanns Demands (For Now)

ICM Imploding, Part 2: Chris Silbermann Forces Decision By Largest Investor And Calls ICM Board Meeting Friday; Secretly Relying On Mike Ovitzs Advice And Help ICM investor Suhail Rizvi and the ICM Board today are blowing off yesterday’s demands byICM President Chris Silbermann for a Friday decision andboard meeting about the management buyout. The reason citedis that Silbermann hasyet toput anything in writing. “I think there’s a lot of concern as to whether his plan is deliverable or executable. There’s nothing to consider until it exists,” one insider tells me.”He’s been told to put it in writing.” So until that happens,Silbermann will just continue waiting for an answer whether Rizvi Traverse Management will accept aboyout of its 40% stake in ICM. Or whether the ICM Board will agree to it as well.”Chris went to NY Thursday because he felt he was not getting a serious enough consideration by Suhail. So Chris tried to goose the issue,” one of my sources explains. Meanwhile, Silbermann’smanagement buyout plan remains so ill-formed that he can’t even explain it in detail yet to ICM’s agents. At one recentpoint, Silbermann confessed to several agents in his camp that they might have to expect a significant pay cut –even a halving of their salaries –if financial backing or an asset-based loan can’t be obtained. That took the agents by surprise, to say the least. Also,Silbermann claimed that ICM Chairman Jeff Berg was on board with this management buyout when, in fact, Berg is neither for or against it since his camp hasn’t been given any details about it yet. Another latest development is that Bob Broder and Ted Chervin are no longer solidly in Silbermann’s camp because of the ongoingdivisiveness and destabilization of the agency since I first broke this story. (ICM Imploding! Chris Silbermann & Jeff Berg Battle For Control: Rizvi Sits On Sidelines; How Long Will Warring Last?) Clients are calling daily to ask questions and express fears whether ICM is imploding. Had Silbermann presented a well thought-outplan and kept his unhappiness private(instead of talking about it openly in bars with Hollywood, for example), all this could have stayed behind closed doors. Instead, his handling of this situation has raised questions about Silbermann’s maturity level to take over the agency some day. As for Silbermann asking for Michael Ovitz’s advice and help to raise money, it’s well-known in Hollywood that Silbermann and his family have had many personal and professional ties to Ovitz. “No one thinks Ovitz can raise $50 million let alone the $200 million necessary to buy out Rizvi. The view of that is ‘good luck’,” one source tells me. That Ovitz is involved at all has even put ICM’s reputation in jeopardy and led to consternation in many Hollywood circles. As one major player whose phone has been ringing off the hook about it summed up the reaction for me, “They think that Mike Ovitz is the biggest doofus on the planet, and Chris Silbermann is the second biggest doofus.”