Four months after buying TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com, Lionsgate has found a private equity partner to take a 49% stake in the assets.
Lionsgate paid $255 million to buy TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com from Macrovision. Now it’s sold 49% to One Equity Partners (OEP), the global private equity investment arm of JPMorgan Chase, for $123 million. OEP has an option, under certain circumstances, to acquire an additional 1% and become an equal partner.
Allen Shapiro, a leading media investor, has also joined the partnership and will play an important role in the channel’s growth as Chairman of the joint venture, partnering with Lionsgate Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer to lead the channel’s Executive Committee, supported by Lionsgate’s television management team.
“We are delighted to welcome both One Equity Partners and Allen Shapiro as partners in TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com,” said Feltheimer. “Given their longstanding interest in the channel and the alignment of our interests, they are the ideal partners. OEP is a distinguished and well-capitalized firm that shares our vision of building a dynamic entertainment channel driven by Lionsgate-branded content that will prove to be a major force within our industry,” he added.
“I believe that TV Guide Network and TVGuide.com are unique assets which are difficult to replicate and create enormous opportunities for sustained future growth,” said Shapiro.
“The marriage of Lionsgate’s tremendous content creation and marketing prowess, our financial resources and expertise and Allen Shapiro’s media investment track record form the kind of winning combination that we have sought from day one,” said One Equity Partners Managing Director Greg O’Hara.
