Entrepreneur Casey Wasserman Returns Family to Music Fold

The Wasserman family is back in the music business.

Casey Wasserman, 29, grandson of legendary MCA Inc. Chairman Lew Wasserman, is branching into artist representation this week, hiring a top music manager with a roster of clients including rock bands Coldplay and Rancid.

Wasserman has hired manager Dave Holmes away from Nettwerk Management, home to such acts as Avril Lavigne and Sum 41.

The move is designed to bolster Wasserman’s entertainment firm, Wasserman Media Group, which already includes ownership of the Los Angeles Avengers arena football team and management of action-sports stars such as motocross rider Travis Pastrana.

“Sports and music are very similar,” Wasserman said. When sports and music intersect, he said, “we have the relationships to exploit those opportunities.”

The move comes as the MCA moniker, which Lew Wasserman built into a symbol of power in Hollywood, has all but disappeared from the music industry. The company, founded as talent agency Music Corp. of America, built significant clout through the years by buying record labels such as Motown and Geffen before being sold in 1990. Later, the entertainment conglomerate was sold again to liquor giant Seagram Co., and the music division was renamed Universal Music Group.

The elder Wasserman died last year at 89. This year, after disappointing results at its remaining MCA Records unit, Universal folded the music label into its Interscope division and ended use of the name.