KoRn manager quits The Firm

KoRn manager Jeff Kwatinetz has quit Beverly Hills-based management company The Firm - the company he founded in 1997.

According to New Musical Express (NME), Kwatinetz's departure on Thursday, 06 November follows the departure of many employees at The Firm and he reportedly told colleagues that he was leaving because the company "was an embodiment of Rick Yorn, Dave Baram and myself".

According to Variety, Yorn left on 19 October to start a new company and was joined by several high-level executives from The Firm, including merchandising executive and Snoop Dogg manager Constance Schwartz.

The report says that Kwatinetz will launch his own entertainment company, and will take some of The Firm’s staff with him. His new company will focus on music, TV and film management as well as production, and he will still remain manager to his music acts.

Kwatinetz is reported to have been the the "driving force" behind a deal in which EMI and Live Nation - the United States' biggest concert promoter - paid KoRn $27 million to create a separate corporation that oversees and shares in the profits from sales of the band's records, concert tickets, and merchandise.

"What I'm proud of at the Firm is we've shifted the balance of power both creatively and financially more to the artist's side," Kwatinetz says.

"These deals work best with acts whose record sales are on a decline but are still viable live acts with ancillary revenues," says one EMI exec about the KoRn/EMI pact. "And it typically gives management commissions on the advance payments."