Indie film studio A24 recently explored a possible sale, floating an asking price of between $2.5 billion to $3 billion and Apple is reportedly one of the potential suitors.
Sources familiar with the situation tell Variety that the Oscar-winning shop behind “Moonlight” and “Uncut Gems” has engaged with numerous potential suitors for more than 18 months…
The company has grown to the point where it has over 100 employees and maintains offices in Manhattan and Los Angeles.
Possible scenarios for a deal have included merging with standalone players or an outright absorption by a tech giant. A24’s tires were kicked by Apple, with whom it signed a multi-year film slate deal in 2018 that has yielded titles like Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks.” Though some sources said the Apple acquisition talks happened closer to the slate announcement, two other insiders said talks were much more recent.
“What’s the asset?” asked one film executive, pointing to A24’s modest library, recent selloffs to digital players like Hulu (Illana Glazer’s Tribeca Film Festival player “False Positive”) and Amazon (the Val Kilmer Cannes doc “Val”). The Apple slate is not as cut and dried as it seems, added multiple people familiar with that arrangement. Sold to the town as a “put deal,” where a distributor is required to release an agreed-upon slate of films, the sources said Apple has passed on numerous titles that A24 hoped to go to Apple TV Plus subscribers.
MacDailyNews Take: Such an acquisition is certainly within the realm of possibility, so sayeth a little birdie.
A24 is amazing. I hope Apple can get this library. It suits the quality Apple wants.
A24 seems to have an excellent indie track record. But I simply don’t understand how this 8 year-old company gets to even a billion dollar valuation, let alone three.