The Weinstein Company Accepts $500 Million Investor Bid, Will Become New Women-Led Studio

The Weinstein Company has avoided bankruptcy, accepting a $500 million bid that will see Harvey and Bob Weinstein exit and a new company form. Variety reports that the studio announced that they have accepted the bid from an investor group that is lead by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle.

The bid follows months of controversy that followed in the wake of dozens of sexual harassment and abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The studio attempted to recover and was close to a deal with another group until it fell apart, leading the company to announce it would file for bankruptcy late last month.

The new deal will allow the investor group to launch a new company, which will be led by a female-led board of directors. The plan is to rebrand the company entirely. A new name has yet to be selected, though the investors were leaning toward Wonder Hill at one point. The deal will create an $80 million compensation fund for victims of Weinstein’s harassment and abuse.

Both Bob and Harvey Weinstein will no longer be part of the company; Harvey resigned from the board in the midst of the scandal but had retained 22% of company stock. Bob Weinstein will take his Dimension Films brand with him when he leaves as well as one unreleased film, the horror flick Polaroid. The new group will take control of TWC’s 277-film library, which includes the previous Dimension films such as the Crow, From Dusk till Dawn, and Scream franchises among others.

The entire TWC workforce will remain with the new company, and the money in the deal will allow the company to set release dates for several films nearing completion such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon’s The Current War.

The statement from The Weinstein Company read, “We are pleased to announce that we have entered into an agreement to sell the assets of The Weinstein Company to an investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle. The deal provides a clear path for compensation for victims and protects the jobs of our employees. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Attorney General Schneiderman and his staff, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Ron Burkle and his team at Yucaipa for bringing about this agreement. We consider this to be a positive outcome under what have been incredibly difficult circumstances.”

Contreras-Sweet added, “Our team is pleased to announce that we have taken an important step and have reached an agreement to purchase assets from The Weinstein Company in order to launch a new company, with a new board and a new vision that embodies the principles that we have stood by since we began this process last fall. Those principles have never wavered and have always been to build a movie studio led by a board of directors made up of a majority of independent women, save about 150 jobs, protect the small businesses who are owed money and create a victims’ compensation fund that would supplement existing insurance coverage for those who have been harmed. The cornerstone of our plan has been to launch a new company that represents the best practices in corporate governance and transparency. This next step represents the best possible pathway to support victims and protect employees. We are grateful to the New York State Attorney General’s office for their efforts in helping us reach an agreement and we are grateful to our investors who have believed in this process and in the compelling value of a female-led company. We also want to thank all the parties who returned to the negotiating table to help us reach this development. I have had a long-standing commitment to fostering women ownership in business. This potential deal is an important step to that end.”