Late last year, Lionsgate announced that it would merge its studio business, which includes its television studio and motion picture group, with Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp as it splits the studio division with Starz.
With this transition, Starz, the cable television network, will be spun off into its own firm, while Lionsgate Studios will be founded.
After these two new firms are established in April, Lionsgate will retain 87.3% of the total shares in Lionsgate Studios and the Starz platform. Screaming Eagle’s public shareholders, founders, and investors will own 12.7% of the combined firm. Lionsgate Studios is currently valued at $4.6 billion.
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“This transaction creates one of the world’s largest publicly traded pure play content platforms with the ability to deliver significant incremental value to all of our stakeholders,” said Jon Feltheimer, Lionsgate’s CEO, in a statement when the transaction was announced. “Coupled with the acquisition of the eOne platform scheduled to close next week… we’ve put together all of the pieces for a thriving standalone content company with a strong financial growth trajectory.”
Lionsgate has been preparing to split the studio and Starz for over two years. The business decided to wait until after it completed the acquisition of eOne from Hasbro before launching the standalone studio, which will be disclosed next week.
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This action allows Lionsgate Studios to be free of any liabilities arising from its cable TV network Starz.
“We are thrilled to be a part of establishing Lionsgate Studios as one of the only pure play content companies in the public markets, which is well positioned to unlock value for both existing and new shareholders,” said Eli Baker, CEO of Screaming Eagle. “We believe this will be seen as one of the most innovative and value creating transactions the market has seen in some time.”
The actual date of the April split has not been confirmed.
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