The South Korean media conglomerate whose entertainment arm produced the winner of the 2019 Oscar for best picture, “Parasite,” is in final talks to acquire a majority stake in the scripted arm of Endeavor Content, a subsidiary of the talent agent Endeavor Group, two people familiar with the negotiations said.
Under the deal, which the people familiar with the negotiations said was being valued at $900 million to $1 billion, the South Korean conglomerate, CJ ENM, would own 80 percent of the business and the Endeavor Group 20 percent.
The Wall Street Journal reported the news earlier. Neither Endeavor Content nor CJ would comment on the talks.
Endeavor is being forced to reduce its ownership stake in its scripted content business as a result of a settlement this year with the Writers Guild of America, whose writers went on strike to protest what they saw as a conflict of interest at agencies that owned both talent representation businesses and production companies.
Endeavor is not required to sell off its unscripted assets and will maintain 100 percent ownership of that business.
Endeavor Content was formed in 2017 by Graham Taylor and Chris Rice. Today it calls itself a global film and television studio, and it has produced such projects as “Nine Perfect Strangers,” a Hulu mini-series starring Nicole Kidman, and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, “The Lost Daughter.” It owns a minority stake in Bruna Papandrea’s production company, Made Up Stories, in addition to PictureStart and Media Res.
Mr. Taylor and Mr. Rice will remain co-chief executives of the new company, the people with knowledge of the deal said.
CJ has been expanding its foothold in Hollywood in recent years. Miky Lee, the vice chair of CJ Entertainment, the Hollywood arm of CJ ENM, rose to the national stage when she accepted the best picture Oscar for “Parasite,” but she was a Hollywood player before then, nudging CJ toward Hollywood in the 1990s with a stake in DreamWorks. Most recently, she invested $100 million in David Ellison’s Skydance Media and was elected vice chair of the board of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
