Walt Disney sells Miramax to focus on its core strategy

Walt Disney Company offloads Miramax Films for $660 million to Filmyard Holdings LLC, underscoring its strategy to focus on big blockbuster movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean."

The sale brings to end a long drawn six-month bidding cycle that included efforts by founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein to repossess the flagging outfit. The deal was sealed when construction magnate Ronald N. Tutor and his allies paid a nonrefundable $40 million deposit and presented a financing plan.

Mr. Tutor, who is the chief executive of the Tutor Perini Corporation, and Tom Barrack, the chief executive of Colony Capital, a private equity firm, are partners in Filmyard Holdings.

Miramax spearheaded the change in 1990s when it produced low budget hits such as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love". But as the business dynamics changed whereby bigger movies with sequels have been selling, Miramax business model became a misfit for Disney's model of venturing into big movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Disney has been focusing more on exploiting mega movie pictures under its Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands, as these movies give it wider scope to generate revenues by developing associated products like games, toys etc. Not to mention the sequels that could be created which adds life to the value generating ability of the movie franchise.