Todd Boehly Eldridge Industries is folding three major entertainment companies – Billboard-Hollywood Reporter, dick clark productions and film and television studio MRC, into one new company, Valence Media.
Based in Los Angeles, Valence has divisions or investments in premium television, wide release film, specialty film, live entertainment and digital media, and an enterprise value approaching $3 billion and anticipates growing both organically and through acquisitions, the company said.
Valence will be led by Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk, the co-founders and co-CEOs of MRC. Satchu and Wiczyk will serve as co-CEOs of Valence. Todd Boehly will serve as Chairman.
Each division within Valence will maintain its individual brand and its current leadership. At dcp, Allen Shapiro will become Executive Chairman, and Mike Mahan will become CEO. Billboard-Hollywood Reporter President John Amato will become CEO. Current leadership will remain in place at MRC with existing leadership assuming additional responsibilities.
The consolidation of the media companies comes less than a year after the high profile sale of dick clark productions to Chinese media giant Dalian Wanda for a reported $1bn came unraveled in the face of regulatory scrutiny in China.
While it may seem like Eldridge is positioning assets for a better opportunity to sell, that’s not necessarily the case. MRC fo-founder Modi Wiczyk told Variety that the intent of the merger is to turn the media companies into a large, integrated multi-channel content provider.
“What we have as a foundation from day one is expertise and relationships across film, scripted TV, live events and digital media,” Wiczyk told Variety. “That’s a great base to build from.”