Mediawan
Mediawan S.A. is a French media conglomerate and audiovisual international production & distribution group. It was founded on December 15, 2015, by Xavier Niel, Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton under the legal form of a special-purpose acquisition company with the purpose to acquire assets and operations in the media production and distribution business in Europe. Their ambition for the company was to become "one of the largest platforms for European content".
History
Founding, first acquisitions and expansions (2015–2020)
Mediawan was founded on December 15, 2015, as an acquisition service, with the company's plan was to form an audiovisual international group through acquisitions across France and Europe in the entertainment or media industries.The company went public on April 22, 2016, raising €250 million.
In January 2017, Mediawan announced that it had entered exclusive negotiations to acquire French audiovisual production, broadcasting and distribution company AB Groupe from its co-founder Claude Berda who had a 53% stake of the company alongside media company TF1 Group who owned a 33.5% stake, for €270 million in order for Mediawan to build a European premium content leader and an audiovisual production and distribution group. The deal could give Mediawan their own production companies and an international distribution division along with the pay-TV channels that AB Groupe owns. Two months later in late-March of that same year, Mediawan completed its acquisition of French audiovisual production, broadcasting & distribution company AB Groupe from its co-founder Claude Berda alongside media company TF1 Group as AB Groupe becoming a fully owned subsidiary of Mediawan, marking Mediawan's first step into the premium production and distribution activities.
In June 2017, Mediawan announced exclusive talks to acquire a majority stake in Paris-based French documentary production company Clarke Costelle & Co.
One month later in July of that same year, Mediawan closed its acquisition of a majority stake in Paris-based French documentary audiovisual production company Clarke Costelle & Co with CC&C became a subsidiary of Mediawam. Also in the same month, they announced that they purchased the remaining 35% stake in Luxembourgish television channel RTL9 from its previous parent company RTL Group.
In December 2017, Mediawan announced they were in exclusive talks to acquiring a majority stake of Paris-based entertainment & animation production group ON Entertainment who owns live-action film production house Chapter 2 and its animation label Method Animation under the ON Kids & Family division alongside their feature film division ON Animation Studios, their post-production & CGI feature studio Onyx Lux and their Montreal-based feature animation production studio for about €50 million in order for them to enter the animation and feature film businesses. One year later in June 2018, Mediawan announced that they had completed their acquisition of a majority stake in ON Entertainment, the acquisition marked Mediawan's first entry into the animation market and gave Mediawan their own animation studio. Following its completion of Mediawan's acquisition of ON Entertainment, Mediawan restructured its operations into four groups and rebranded ON Entertainment as their children's subsidiary renamed to ON Kids & Family after ON's division with Chapter 2 moved into Mediawan's feature film production division.
In January 2018, Mediawan announced that it had acquired EuropaCorp's French television production division EuropaCorp Television and renamed the division into Storia Television expanding Mediawan's drama portfolio and becoming the biggest producer of television fiction content and expanded their international content. They also announced that they were in exclusive negotiations to buy a 60% majority stake in Paris-based French scripted production company Mon Voisin Productions and a majority stake in French television production group Makever along with their 7 independent production companies. Two months later in March of that same year, Mediawan announced that they had completed their acquisition of a majority stake in French scripted television production group Makever Group along with their production subsidiaries. Seven months later, in October of that same year, Mediawan announced that they had completed their acquisition of a majority stake in French scripted production company Mon Voisin Productions. Later in that same month of the same year, Mediawan announced that they had entered a restructure by organising their operations into four audiovisuel activities and had rebranded AB Groupe and their own international distribution arm AB International Distribution under the Mediawan name into Mediawan Thematics and Mediawan Rights, marking the first time Mediawan had rebranded their subsidiaries following their acquisition since 2017.
In December 2018, Mediawan announced that they had acquired a 50% stake in French film production company Mai Juin Productions and placing it under their content production division Mediawan Originals with the founder of Mai Juin Productions Gilles de Maistre joining Mediawan under their pool of talent.
In January 2019, Mediawan announced that they had entered a deal to acquire a 53% stake in Italian independent production outfit Palomar, the acquisition will be Mediawan's first acquisition outside of France. Two months later in March of that same year, Mediawan announced that they had completed their acquisition of a 53% majority stake in Italian independent production company Palomar, marking Mediawan's expansion into Italy with Mediawan will have plans to acquire a 75% stake later alongside founder and CEO of Palomar, Carlo Degli Esposti who continued having a 25% in the acquired company.
In April 2019, one year after Mediawan brought Paris-based production group ON Entertainment in June 2018, Mediawan alongside its children's subsidiary ON Kids & Family announced they've established a partnership with world-known French author and illustrator Joann Sfar to adapt his works into film and television with Mediawan and its subsidiary ON Kids & Family's acquisition of a majority stake in Joann Sfar's animation production company Nice Pictures, marking ON Kids & Family's first acquisition and placed it under the latter subsidiary and would undergo a major rebranding and a state of series and movies.
In May 2019, Mediawan announced that they had joined forces with French producer Noor Sadar and Belgian production company Entre Chien et Loups to launch a French production company dedicated to genre and low-budget films named Black Swan Tales.
In September 2019, Mediawan announced that they had launched their production label named NC Production with producer Nicole Collet joining Mediawan and their production label as their CEO of the production label.
In October 2019, Mediawan announced that there buying a majority stake in French film production company Radar Films in order for Mediawan to move into French and international series, expanding Mediawan's film production operations with Radar Films was placed under Mediawan's film production activities and will use their investment develop French and English-language films.
In February 2020, Mediawan announced that they had acquired a majority stake in Paris-based French premium documentary and scripted production company Black Dynamite, expanding Mediawan's documentary production activities.
In June 2020, following ON Kids & Family's acquisition of Joann Sfar's Paris-based production outfit Nice Pictures back in June 2019 and whilst during the online Annecy Animation Film Festival, Mediawan announced their children's subsidiary ON Kids & Family had rebranded its Paris-based production subsidiary Nice Pictures as their mini-studio, renaming it to Magical Society with Veteran animation producer, founder of Method Animation founder and ON Kids & Family co-founder Aton Soumache joining the rebranded production unit as renowned comic book artist & filmmaker Joann Sfar continued heading the rebranded production company with the release of its first movie based on Sfar's comic book series Little Vampire.
On 22 June 2020, Mediawan announced the creation of a dedicated pan-European company named Mediawan Alliance with Mediawan announcing that they had established an agreement to acquire a minority stake in German film & television production and distribution company Leonine Holding and announced that they had entered negotiations to buy French entertainment production and distribution company Lagardère Studios and their production subsidiaries including its distribution division from the Lagardère Group for €100 million that could further expand Mediawan's production portfolio and further expand Mediawan's international operations into other countries like Spain in order for Lagardère to focus on its publishing and travel retail operations. Mediawan also announced that they brought a majority stake in Spanish-based content production company Good Mood expanding their Spanish operations. Mediawan's division Mediawan Alliance announced that they were in exclusive negotiations to buy the French hip-hop group Troisième Œil's audiovisual activities. Five months later on November 2 of that same year Mediawan announced that they had completed their acquisition of French international production and distribution company Lagardère Studios and their production subsidiaries including its distribution division from the Lagardère Group along with their pan-European division Mediawan Alliance had completed their acquisition of the French hip-hop group Troisième Œil's audiovisual division and a minority stake in German audiovisual production and distribution company Leonine Holding, with the former being folded into Mediawan's expanded portfolio turning Mediawan into a pan-European entertainment production powerhouse. They also announced that they had taken a minority stake in Madrid-based Spanish production company Weekend Studio. One week later on November 11 of that same year following Mediawan completed their acquisition of Lagardère Studios, Mediawan announced that they were forming a Spanish production hub based in Spain named Mediawan Studios Spain with their three Spanish production companies being placed in that new division.