Weinstein Company in takeover talks

The production company co-founded by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has entered talks over a possible sale.

The Weinstein Company, which has produced Oscar-winning films since 2005, including The King’s Speech and The Artist, is believed to have entered into a preliminary agreement with US private equity firm Colony Capital over a possible sale of all, or a significant part of, its assets.

Ever since allegations emerged about Weinstein and a series of sexual harassment claims, “the future of the company has been uncertain” says The Independent.

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The producer was fired by his own board earlier this month and there have been suggestions they were also looking at the possibility of changing the company’s name to distance it from the scandal.

Now, according to board member Tarak Ben Ammar, Colony Capital has agreed to inject funds immediately into the Weinstein Company.

In a statement, the board said: “We believe that Colony’s investment and sponsorship will help stabilise the Company’s current operations, as well as provide comfort to our critical distribution, production and talent partners around the world.”

The private equity firm, which manages funds of more than $50bn, “is already a major player in the film industry”, says the BBC.

In 2010, it bought Miramax, founded by Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein, from Disney and since then has worked closely with The Weinstein Company in developing the film libraries of the two firms for platforms including Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Hulu.