Bob Iger Finishes Off The Weinstein Brothers
By selling Miramax back to the Weinstein Brothers (that would be Harvey and Bob) and (ahem) Lord Ron Burkle (he who has single-handedly created thousands of jobs in the prostitution and supermarket industries), Disney Chief Bob Iger has effectively given the coup de grace to Harvey and Bob thus ending their 30+ year run in show business.But, you say, they'll be running Miramax, picking up awesome Kevin Smith and Ben Affleck movies that the big studios don't want to make? Right? They're still in the business.
Sorry. Miramax will out of business in five years. In 2013, a fire sale of the library will be hastily arranged by GoldmanSachsBankOfAmericaJPMorganCiti (a division of Lending Tree) and the price will be less that $200 million.
I suppose the deal allows Harvey and Bob the chance to die with dignity and go down in flames with the company they started (the name combines their parent's first names "Miriam" and "Max") - but I think a real friend (which obviously Bob Iger isn't) would have said to stay far away from this horribly overpriced mess of fragmented film rights that have very little resale / remake value left in them. I suppose that's why Bob Iger is the current toast of the town and Harvey and Bob are just toast. (Texas Toast if you believe this blog.) Karma's a bitch.If the new post-Disney Miramax is run as efficiently as The Weinstein Company, Ron Burkle's $3.5 billion net worth should be exhausted within 10 or 15 years (though I'm sure he'll pull the plug once $1 billion is gone and save the rest to solve the growing hooker unemployment problem that has ravaged this country. (At this point, Ron could probably just trade sex for food - which he probably could arrange to get from his former Ralph's and Food4Less stores. I would hope he would offer food from Ralph's so the poor girls don't have to bag their own groceries at Food4Less).
But enough about Ron Burkle's (alleged) shenanigans mentioned above, this is about the Harvey and Bob Weinstein - two guys who changed the film distribution industry by taking on the big guys with small movies (and many times winning). But the greedy bastards sold off the dream for $80 million to Disney and now, the even greedier bastards, want it back for $600 million.
The classic example of throwing good money (well, Ron Burkle's money) after bad.
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About Jill Kennedy
Jill Kennedy is an Ivy League MBA / refugee from Lehman Brothers.
Manka Bros. (and the Manka Business Channel) hired her (for a very low sum) to cover the world of media (not the world of Medea) in her own words without corporate interference.
About Medea
Medea was a real bitch from classical mythology - as most famously dramatized by Euripides.
She was a sorceress and wife of Jason, whom she assisted in obtaining the Golden Fleece. When Jason deserted her, she chopped up their children. One could say, Medea acted as rationally as a major media company.
Tips, Scoops and Smoking Guns
No one will miss them or Kevin Smith.
It doesn't seem to be a done deal yet. I think they definitely are the front runners but you may be jumping the gun on this one Jill.
I think it's a good risk by Harvey. Obviously the name Miramax means more than The Weinstein Company. He never got any traction and lost all that money. Now he gets fresh money to play with and you never know it may work out.
Yes, but if I understand correctly, ownership of a number of Woody Allen's films also changed hands in this deal and, as we all know, none of Woody Allen's films (from 1990 onwards) are worth reproducing on DVD, let alone storing in a vault somewhere. I'm not even sure if they should be preserved on fading VHS tapes.