Universal Studios boss Ron Meyer has won over his bosses at General Electric.
Meyer was rewarded yesterday with a new five-year deal, a little more than a year after GE’s NBC closed its blockbuster deal to acquire Universal Studios.
Meyer, 60, signed a deal to remain president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios through 2010. His contract had been set to expire in 2007.
The new pact suggests that NBC Universal boss Bob Wright is no longer considering looking outside for new executive talent – as he was thinking of doing following the merger. At the time of the deal in late 2003, The Post reported that Wright was looking to bring in an outsider to run the new company’s Hollywood operations.
“Ron’s unfailing stewardship during his decade as Universal Studios’ president and chief operating officer, matched with his insight into our industry, has made him an invaluable executive in this ever-evolving media landscape,” Wright said in a statement yesterday.
Meyer, a former Marine, has been in his current position since 1995.
“Having been at Universal for 10 years and [having] witnessed a great deal of change, I am very excited with how well NBC and Universal have integrated their cultures and with the many unique business opportunities this combination continues to produce,” Meyer said.
Meyer has weathered numerous owners of Universal – having worked under former boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. when Seagram owned the company and under Vivendi’s Jean-Marie Messier after French conglomerate Vivendi bought the studio in 2000.
Prior to working at Universal, Meyer was president of Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency he founded in 1975 with four agents from the William Morris Agency. Previously Meyer worked at William Morris for five years.
Universal has raked in about $470 million in box office receipts so far this year, according to the tracking firm Box Office Mojo.
This makes Universal the fifth-largest studio based on market share. Twentieth Century Fox ranks No. 1 with about $950 million in receipts through July 10. Both The Post and 20th Century Fox are owned by News Corp.