Disney sells Miramax Films

Walt Disney has announced it has sold its film division Miramax to a group of private equity investors.

 

Walt Disney has announced it has sold its film division Miramax to a group of private equity investors. Disney has been trying to sell its Miramax Films arm for some time and has been in negotiations with potential buyers for several months. Miramax was originally founded in 1979 and investigated in independent films and distribution but became part of Disney in 1993. Films released by Miramax include Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Working Girls, Muriel’s Wedding, Trainspotting, Shakespeare In Love and more recently Brideshead Revisited, City of Men and the Scary Movie franchise and the Scream trilogy under the label Dimension Films.

 

Disney has been selling off some of its assets in recent years; last year it sold its remaining stake in the British Breakfast broadcaster GMTV. Disney sold its remaining shares in the struggling Breakfast programme to ITV who had been slowly acquiring more shares in GMTV for several years to enable it to take full control. Now ITV has full control of the franchise it has announced plans to re-launch it as Daybreak. There has also been rumours that Disney could sell off its American broadcaster ABC which is acquired in 1996. However, in terms of ratings ABC still performs relatively against the likes of NBC and CBS and hits such as Desperate Housewives and Lost have secured those ratings over recent years.

 

Last year Disney acquired the Marvel brand and it now intends to concentrate its movies through its Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands.