Rumours about another powerful merger surfaced last week, this time on the agent side of the business.

The international Wylie Agency“ which represents authors such as Chinua Achebe, Philip Roth, and Salman Rushdie, as well as Canadians Ann-Marie MacDonald, Madeleine Thien, and Miriam Toews “ is said to be investigating a sale or joining forces with the Hollywood talent agency CAA.

According to the New York Post, agency head Andrew Wylie has denied the rumours, stating:

The Wylie Agency is not for sale. Nor has it ever been. We have discussed mergers and acquisitions in the past but have never been interested in surrendering control through any merger. We are not now in discussions, and I do not foresee entering into discussions about anything other than a joint venture in which the Wylie Agency would retain an equal or a majority shareholding.

If Wylie and CAA were to enter into a joint venture, it would make them a formidable force in the industry, poised to compete with the international talent agency ICM Partners, which has its own in-house books division, handling film adaptations of books by Cormac McCarthy, Candace Bushnell, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.