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Walt Disney Co announced on Friday the sale of its Miramax films division to an investor group for more than $660 million, ending months of talks with several bidders.
The Burbank, California-based company said it agreed to sell the Miramax unit to Filmyard Holdings, whose partners include Los Angeles construction tycoon Ronald Tutor, who is chief executive of Tutor Perini Corp, and Tom Barrack, the chairman and CEO of private equity firm Colony Capital LLC.
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The sale includes rights over 700 films, including popular titles like Chicago, Shakespeare in Love and No Country for Old Men, as well as certain books and development projects.
"Although we are very proud of Miramax's many accomplishments, our current strategy for Walt Disney Studios is to focus on the development of great motion pictures under the Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands,” Disney’s chief executive Robert Iger said.
The transaction is expected to close between September 10 and year end.
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Miramax was bought by Disney for $80 million in 1993 from Bob and Harvey Weinstein brothers who founded the studio. Since early 2010, several companies showed an interest in purchasing Miramax including Weinstein brothers.
Disney had on Wednesday said it will buy social game-startup Playdom and is all set to take a leading market share in fast-growing online social gaming space. On the same day, U.S. video game retail giant GameStop announced its purchase of social gaming website Kongregate to diversify its business into digital game distribution.
Shares of Disney ended Thursday’s session 33 cents, or 0.97 percent, lower at $33.71 on the NYSE.
