Chris Albrecht's e-mail misfire led to McGurk and Rosett's exit from Overture

Here's a cautionary tale about writing e-mail on a BlackBerry courtesy of Starz President Chris Albrecht.

On July 1, Albrecht touched down in Majorca, Spain, for a vacation. Like any good executive, he checked his BlackBerry. He read an e-mail from two senior Starz executives concerning the future of Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, the chief executive and chief operating officer, respectively, of Overture Films, a unit of Starz. The fate of Overture has been in question for months as Starz and parent Liberty Media are assessing its viability.

Albrecht tapped out his response to the two executives, suggesting that upon his return July 12 they should discuss removing McGurk and Rosett. However, instead of responding to the e-mail that he'd received from the two executives, he mistakenly replied to a different e-mail about letting Starz employees work half a day on Friday, July 2.

As a result, his note went to approximately 400 Starz employees and senior executives -- including McGurk and Rosett.

Realizing his goof, Albrecht immediately called Bill Myers, president of Starz Entertainment, to inform him of the error. During their conversation, McGurk called Albrecht and told him that he had seen the e-mail. Later that day, McGurk and Rosett tendered their resignations.

 Before Albrecht left town, he and the two Overture executives had a meeting to discuss the marketing spending on three movies set for release this fall. The two sides disagreed over how much money was needed to promote them.

Allan Mayer, a spokesman for Starz, confirmed the events to The Times.

"Chris Albrecht inadvertently sent an e-mail to the whole company that was supposed to go just to senior executives at Starz," he said. "In it, he discussed the removal of Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett. It was an unfortunate and embarrassing mistake and Albrecht and the company immediately apologized to McGurk and Rosett."

For the last six months, McGurk and Rosett had been trying to find a buyer for Overture after John Malone, who controls Starz parent Liberty Media, made it clear he had lost interest in the movie business and was looking to unload the company and its sister home video distributor and animation operations. Like other small independent studios, several of which have shut down, Overture has had a decidedly mixed track record at the box office in its three-year existence.

There are currently two bidders for Overture and its 16-film library, according to a person familiar with the situation: investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores and Los Angeles-based private equity firm Aurora Resurgence.

An Aurora executive did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Gores brothers declined to comment.

The fate of the Beverly Hills company and its 67 employees, including marketing and distribution chief Peter Adee, who took over day-to-day operations after McGurk and Rosett left, is up in the air.

"The company is still exploring a variety of options," Mayer said. "And no decision has been made."

-- Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz

Top photo: A BlackBerry Bold 2. Credit: Mark Blinch / Reuters. Middle photo: Chris Albrecht. Credit: Joshua Caine / Liberty Media. Bottom photo: Chris McGurk. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Mike]

No surprise here. Albrecht already has a history at Starz of making poor decisions... First cancelling "Party Down" and now this.

[truth inreporting]

"Oh no! How do I unsend an email? Darnit. This isn't good."

[Julie]

It's a shame when content companies make poor decisions about content.

[Bruce]

So how much is Albrecht making as CEO?

Certainly it should be LESS after proving how inept he is.

[Benjamin McCall]

I think it is funny actually.
If another employee had made this mistake they would be severly scolded, publicly ridiculed in the company and possibly fired.
The CEO should recieve the same. Come on Corporate HR... put a note in his file and up for dismissal...
ahh like that will happen!

http://ReThinkHR.org
http://Twitter.com/BenjaminMcCall

[Sad State]

Benjamin McCall makes a good point but if he was really such an HR person he would not agree that this is funny. This is a Company that was built when the recession hit and still provided new jobs for a great many people in a business that mostly was laying off thousands. Not only has the CEO done this, my friends there are now in a state of fear because they do not know what the next shoe to drop will be and the company is clearly dead. That's just as bad of a way to treat employees as to take no care when sending sensitive emails. It really looks like a circus and the victims are the employees.