Concord Records has been merged into the Village Roadshow Pictures Group — a unit of Australian publicly traded Village Roadshow Ltd. — to form a new company called Village Roadshow Entertainment Group.
The new company will be 39.9% owned by Village Roadshow Ltd., with the majority remainder split between Norman Lear’s Act III Communications, Tailwind Capital and Clarity Partners, the latter two being private equity firms based in New York and Los Angeles, respectively.
Prior to the merger, the two companies had common owners in that Norman Learand Hal Gaba’s Act III Communications and Tailwind owned Concord; and Act III and Clarity — through an entity called Crescent Entertainment — owned 50% of Village Roadshow Pictures group.
In the just completed deal, Act III and its partners paid $47.8 million to command a 60.1% ownership stake in the newly merged company, although the majority equity split between the three entities was not disclosed. The deal was first announced on Sept. 3, 2007.
According to a press release, the two companies, Village Roadshow Pictures Group and Concord Records, will continue to operate as separate entities, but some backroom functions like human resources and information technology likely will be combined. The principals also foresee cross-platform opportunities through the combination of complementary film and music assets under one roof.
Gaba and Village Roadshow Ltd. managing director Graham Burke will be co-chairman of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, while Greg Basser will serve as CEO. Bruce Berman retains the position of CE0 of Village Roadshow Pictures Group, while Glen Barros remains president/CEO of Concord Records, reports Concord Records CFO Bob Valentine.
In its fiscal year ended June 30, Village Roadshow Pictures Group reported an operating loss of $55.8 million Australian dollars ($47.4 million) on revenues of $669 million Australian dollars ($567.9 million). Concord Records doesn’t disclose its financial information, but Billboard estimates its revenues last year at $95 million.
