MOSAIC PIECES

Talk about your works in progress. This week’s potential #1 chart debut for Alanis Morissette is a win not only for Morissette and Maverick, but for the Mosaic Media Group, the high-concept management/production entity that’s been growing by leaps and bounds lately.

Why? It goes something like this: In 1999, veteran dealmaker Allen Shapiro brought together two management companies—one from film and TV, one from music—to form Mosaic: Gold/Miller and Atlas/Third Rail. Gold/Miller’s clients include Jim Carrey, the Wayans brothers, Jon Stewart, Judd Apatow and Will Ferrell, while Atlas/Third Rail represents recording artists including the Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day and, of course, Morissette.

That first deal named six Mosaic partners: In addition to Shapiro, (who’s also President), G/M principals Eric Gold and Jimmy Miller and A/TR’s Charles Roven, Scott Welch and Pat Magnarella joined up. It was a meeting of like minds: In addition to managing, Gold and Miller (who formed their company in 1994) have been involved in film and television production since the star-making In Living Color.

A/TR, meanwhile, also mixed management with production. An offshoot of Roven’s partnership with Bob Cavallo, which began in 1990 as Roven-Cavallo Entertainment, the company became Atlas Entertainment in 1994 when Roven’s wife, the late Dawn Steel, joined as a third partner. (Cavallo left to run Disney’s Buena Vista Music Group in 1998.) Atlas subsequently formed a movie unit headed by Roven (Three Kings, City of Angels, 12 Monkeys). The company also formed a joint-venture label, Third Rail Records, with Disney. These assets also became part of Mosaic as part of the 1999 deal.

Since then, Mosaic has made several strategic acquisitions, thanks to a major investment in August 2000 by Canadian public pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, whose media investment company, Capital Communications CDPQ is now a minority partner. It lately bought dick clark productions with Capital and TV executive Jules Haimovitz. Says Shapiro, "We’re trying to acquire companies that create additional opportunities for our clients, companies that our expertise can add value to."

Other Mosaic moves:

+ July ’01: Mosaic invests in N.Y. management company Family Tree Entertainment (OutKast, Macy Gray, Donnell Jones). Family Tree opens L.A. branch out of Mosaic’s offices.

+ Sept. ’01: Mosaic Music Publishing launches, with former PolyGram Music and Maverick Music chief Lionel Conway at the helm.

+ Oct. ’01: Mosaic forms Signpost Pictures in partnership with Capital Communications and former Universal Pictures International President Stewart Till.

+ Oct. ’01: Entertainment Weekly places Mosaic fifth on its "Power" issue’s list of rising companies.

+ Jan. ’02: Mosaic Music Publishing buys manager Bill Ham’s publishing interests, which include works by ZZ Top, Clint Black and several Nashville songwriters.

Shapiro adds that an expansion or reworking of its record label is on the horizon: "We’re looking for the best financial model to bring capital to that business—it’s obviously a fairly unstable time. I don’t have a crystal ball, but when the right model makes itself apparent and the right executive makes himself apparent, we will invest in the record business."