Legendary Entertainment, the parent company of Legendary Pictures, Legendary Television and more, has sold a $760 million equity stake to Apollo. The sale will give the investment company a minority ownership position in the studio, which is responsible for films such as Dune, The Dark Knight trilogy, Godzilla vs Kong, and more. The companies made the announcement on Monday (via Variety).
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The Dalian Wanda Group, which bought Legendary for $3.5 billion in 2016 will still have a stake in the company, though the report notes that much of Apollo’s investment will be used to pay off Wanda and move control of Legendary away from the Chinese conglomerate. Legendary’s management team is set to fain equity in the company as well.
“It was important to us to find a business partner who believed in our growth story,” Legendary Entertainment CEO Joshua Grode said. “We were also hoping to achieve a configuration that put our management team’s hands more firmly on the steering wheel.”
Last summer it was reported that Legendary Entertainment was exploring either a sale or a merger with another media company, though at the time it was unclear what the asking price would be or what the specific details would entail. Legendary’s deal with Apollo comes during a wave of various studios being purchased with it having previously been announced that Amazon would acquire MGM and A24 exploring a possible buyout for between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. WarnerMedia also announced a merger with Discovery in 2021. That $43 billion deal could close as soon as April and is expected to close before July.
“We believe the strong secular trends and demand for content will benefit companies like Legendary,” Lee Solomon, a partner at Apollo said. “The landscape is wide and there are tons of opportunities to invest in more content companies and back more creators. There are also opportunities to buy other companies that provide synergies and add value.”
In addition to recent success with films such as Dune, Legendary has a number of other releases coming up, including a follow up to Enola Holmes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Fresh, as well as various television series.
What do you think about Legendary’s deal with Apollo? Let us know in the comment section.
