Lagardère Unlimited, a newly-founded talent management division of French media group Lagardère, has announced an agreement with Blue Entertainment Sports Television that will see it manage Andy Roddick.

BEST tennis chief Ken Meyerson left the company last week to join Lagardere Unlimited. BEST subsequntly announced: "Andy Roddick, who has developed a close and personal relationship with Lagardère group's chairman and CEO, Arnaud Lagardère, will join Meyerson at Lagardère Unlimited in a sharing arrangement with BEST Tennis,"

As part of the agreement, the two companies will work together on BEST's range of US tennis tournaments and athletes. Roddick is by far the biggest name of those. He has earned over US$15 million in career prize money and reached the final of Wimbledon twice, as well as winning the US Open in 2003. His association is thought to be worth around US$350,000 per year to Lagardère's new project.

"We've had very productive discussions with Jonathan Blue, BEST's chairman, and Michael Principe, BEST's managing director, to reach this agreement," said Arnaud Lagardère. "BEST has been able to put together very high quality properties with dedicated top management teams to run them. We remain partners to produce tennis exhibitions in the United States. In addition, I've been amazed by the vision of Ken Meyerson and his team and by his drive as a manager. Having Andy Roddick as a client and partner, is something everyone would dream of. Andy has become a friend, and his contribution will go far beyond his current and future achievements as a tennis player."