Todd Boehly seeks to combine 3 Hollywood companies
Merger planned for Hollywood Reporter, producers of Golden Globes and ‘House of Cards’
Todd Boehly, the entertainment investor, is bringing together three Hollywood companies in a complex deal that will merge the maker of House of Cards with the owner of The Hollywood Reporter magazine and the producer of The Golden Globes awards show.
Discussions to combine TV production company Media Rights Capital, the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group and Dick Clark Productions, are at an advanced stage and could be announced imminently, according to three people with knowledge of the talks — although they cautioned that the plans could yet be derailed.
The three companies would be brought together under Mr Boehly’s Eldridge Industries group.
Formerly president of Guggenheim Partners, Mr Boehly is an investor in MRC and controls DCP, the producer of live awards shows. He also controls THR-Billboard, which owns a portfolio of entertainment news titles, and is a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the baseball franchise that lost the World Series finals this year to the Houston Astros.
Under the plans being discussed MRC, DCP and THR-Billboard would continue to be managed independently but would report into a new group wholly owned by Eldridge Industries, which Mr Boehly controls, according to one person briefed on the talks.
Eldridge Industries, which controls THR-Billboard and DCP, declined to comment. Potential deal values were not disclosed, but DCP was valued at about $1bn earlier this year, and MRC has previously been valued at more than $1bn
MRC makes House of Cards which has been rocked by the removal of star Kevin Spacey after a sexual harassment scandal. It has produced other series, such as Ozark, which also appears on Netflix, as well as movies such as Baby Driver — which starred Mr Spacey — and Ted.
The merged group would own assets spanning film and television production, entertainment news and live events. Combining the three companies under one roof would lead to cost savings and revenue synergies as well as better position the new entity for a future sale, said a person close to Mr Boehly.
The talks come nine months after Dalian Wanda, a Chinese conglomerate that owns the AMC cinema chain and Legendary Entertainment, failed to complete a purchase of Dick Clark for about $1bn. The takeover was scrapped following a crackdown on capital flight imposed by Beijing as well growing scepticism among US lawmakers over China’s growing influence in Hollywood.
Eldridge hired Moelis and Goldman Sachs in 2016 to explore a sale of its different media assets after the private equity group was approached by potential buyers.
Following the collapse of Wanda’s bid for Dick Clark, Mr Boehly had started working on a plan to combine the three media companies, said one person briefed on how the deal talks evolved.
A three-way merger would come amid a broader wave of consolidation in the media industry, from publishing to entertainment to production. Jay Penske’s Penske Media recently struck a deal to take control of Rolling Stone magazine, adding it to a portfolio that includes titles such as Variety and Robb Report, while Meredith acquired Time Inc’s stable of magazines in a $2.8bn deal backed by the billionaire Koch brothers.
Walt Disney recently agreed to buy 21st Century Fox’s entertainment and international business — including its stake in Sky, the pan-European pay-TV group — for $66bn. Earlier in the year Discovery Communications struck a deal to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive for $14.6bn.