Elle Woods got a Harvard JD... And Reese Witherspoon got a Blackstone-backed acquisition. The actress and entrepreneur is selling her media company, Hello Sunshine, to a media venture that's backed by famous investment firm Blackstone. The deal values Hello Sunshine at $900M, according to WSJ's people familiar with the matter (#PFWTM). The almost-unicorn will be profitable this year — more than most startups can say.
- The creds: Witherspoon has co-produced TV and movie hits like Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, and Gone Girl.
- The cats: The new media venture that's snatching up HS will be run by former Disney execs, including ex-TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer.
Toss out the old script... Witherspoon started Hello Sunshine in 2016 in response to a lack of complex female roles in Hollywood. She noticed that even top actresses had to compete for one-dimensional characters. While male writers and directors still make up three-fourths of Hollywood, Hello Sunshine focuses on female creators and stories with strong female leads.
- The Hello Sunshine deal is an endorsement of Witherspoon's bet that Hollywood needs more stories told by and for women.
- The acquiring firm will be able to license Hello Sunshine productions to any streamer or network (think: Hulu, HBO) — an edge over studios that only feed their own streaming services.
Creator > Content... It's the same idea as: "if you give a man a fish, he'll be hungry tomorrow — if you teach him how to fish"... he'll be feasting for years. There's a land-grab going on in Hollywood for high-quality movies and shows. Streamers and studios are scrambling to feed their content-hungry platforms. Instead of buying rights to others' content, acquisitions provide a long-term pipeline. More production companies could be snatched up as the content competition continues.