ICM Partners has acquired a majority interest in the indie speakers agency Royce Carlton Inc., ICM managing director Chris Silbermann and Royce Carlton CEO Carlton Sedgeley announced Tuesday.
The combined ICM Partners lectures group will operate as Royce Carlton from their current headquarters in Manhattan and ICM Partners headquarters in Los Angeles. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The agency will be run by Jonathan Perelman, ICM Partners’ head of digital ventures and lectures, along with Sedgeley and EVP Lucy Lepage Sedgeley.
The deal is the second agency acquired by ICM Partners this year, following its acquisition of Headline Media Management in March.
The two agencies have shared prestigious clients over the years, including Thomas Friedman, Ken Auletta and Alan Alda.
Royce Carlton, which was founded in 1968 by Carlton Sedgeley and Lucy Lepage (Sedgeley), exclusively represents such sought-after speakers as Mitch Albom, Fareed Zakaria, Anne-Marie Slaughter and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.
“The Royce Carlton agency is the definition of sophistication and integrity in the speakers business today, with a combination of strong core values, newsworthy clients and excellent agents,” Silbermann said in a statement. “We could not be more excited to build upon our longstanding, close relationship as we welcome them fully into the ICM Partners family.”
In a joint statement by Sedgeley and Lepage, they added: “This is a perfectly timed, strategic move for us that assures our agents and staff, as well as our clients a long-term transition plan, while giving us access to more resources and clients to grow the agency while continuing to provide the best possible service to the people we represent.”