Albrecht Exits IMG

NEW YORK, August 13: After
just 11 months, Chris Albrecht has exited as the president of IMG Global Media
and is planning to relaunch his production outfit, Foresee Entertainment.

Albrecht was named to the
post at IMG last September, in an agreement that also saw him become a limited
partner at IMG’s parent company, private-equity firm Forstmann Little & Co.
Part of his mandate was raising a $250 million fund with Ted Forstmann for
investments in media and entertainment content. Albrecht joined IMG a few
months after leaving HBO, where he had been chairman and CEO for five years.
Albrecht was asked to resign from the premium pay service, where he worked for
some 20 years, after being arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend
in Las Vegas.

Forstmann and Albrecht
issued a statement noting that they were “separating on an amicable basis,
regretful that the association was unable to work,” citing poor market
conditions for the inability to raise the $250 million fund. Reports also
indicate that Forstmann and Albrecht did not get along well.

Albrecht is now planning
to return to Foresee Entertainment, the content production and distribution
outfit he founded prior to joining IMG.

—By Mansha Daswani