The great Hollywood reordering continues: Peter Chernin, one of the entertainment industry’s savviest operators, has decided that his North Road television and film studio can no longer go it alone.
On Friday, Mr. Chernin announced a deal to sell North Road to Mediawan, one of Europe’s biggest content companies. The agreement — paid largely in stock — values North Road at roughly $900 million, two people familiar with the deal said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential information.
North Road’s film credits include “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” and “Back in Action,” starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. Its television shows include the Apple TV drama “See” and the hit reality show “Love Is Blind.”
“There is a real need for greater scale right now,” Mr. Chernin said, noting the consolidation sweeping the entertainment industry, in particular the bidding war between Netflix and Paramount for Warner Bros. Discovery. As legacy entertainment companies bulk up to compete with tech platforms like YouTube and Amazon’s Prime Video, some independent production companies like North Road — companies that sell shows and movies to streaming services — say they must also get bigger, especially overseas.
“The buyers are truly global at this point,” Mr. Chernin said. “The sellers should be, too.”
Mr. Chernin, 74, will stay on as nonexecutive chairman and join the Mediawan board. He co-founded North Road in 2022 as part of an independent producing and investing career that started in 2009 when he left Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate after 20 years.
Mr. Chernin built North Road in part with $150 million each from Providence Equity Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority. “We feel excellent about our return,” he said.
Mediawan has grown quickly through acquisitions since it was founded in Paris in 2015 by Pierre-Antoine Capton, a media executive; Xavier Niel, a telecommunications billionaire; and Matthieu Pigasse, a financier. In 2022, for instance, Mediawan bought a stake in Plan B Entertainment, the Oscar-winning production company co-founded by Brad Pitt. The North Road purchase gives Mediawan greater access to the vast U.S. market.
Mediawan annually produces more than 400 scripted television shows, reality series, documentaries and films. Its hits include “Adolescence” on Netflix and “Slow Horses” on Apple TV.
Mr. Chernin and Mr. Capton have known each other for about four years, and the deal came out of that friendship.
“The idea is to become more independent,” Mr. Capton said. “As our industry consolidates, our goal is to reinforce Mediawan’s position” as a “partner to streaming platforms and all content distributors worldwide.”
Lauren Hirsch is a Times reporter who covers deals and dealmakers in Wall Street and Washington.
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