Seven sells Seven Studios UK to Beyond International
Seven has offloaded the UK arm of its Seven Studios production house, selling the business to Australia and UK-based distributor and producer Beyond International.
Beyond International also acquired the remaining 50.98% of shares in LA-based 7Beyond that it did not previously hold.
Both businesses will be rebranded as Beyond Productions and staff will report to Beyond Productions’ GM and EVP John Luscombe.
Seven CEO James Warburton said the sale formed part of Seven’s plans for the ‘transformation’ of its business. It was widely known Seven was trying to sell its Seven Studios business before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with rumours Amazon was one of the interested parties, but that was put on hold. It was thought $400m could be fetched for the entire asset should its sale arise.
We’ve broken the code for “plans for the ‘transformation’ of its business”.
“Cut the guts out of it” is the common parlance, as is “no-one ever slashed their way to growth”.