Since its inception in 2003, IDT Ent. has been on a shopping spree, buying everything from animation studio Mainframe to home video distributor Anchor Bay, vfx studio DKP Effects and anime specialist Manga Ent. Now it appears that the IDT Corp. subsidiary itself is being sold to Liberty Media for a cash sum of $186 million. The acquisition will allow Liberty Media’s Starz Entertainment Group to produce a wide variety of CG-animated and live-action programming for domestic and international broadcast, cable, theatrical and home video distribution.
“In just three years, we have built IDT Ent. into a strong, vertically integrated entertainment company,” says Jim Courter, CEO of IDT Corp. “We are capitalizing on the value we have created in this business in order to allow us to generate an attractive return for our shareholders. We believe that Liberty Media’s Starz Entertainment Group is the right company to realize IDT Ent.’s full potential.” IDT Ent. CEO Morris Berger adds, “Combining with Starz will provide new avenues of distribution for our expanding slate of CG-animated and live-action content.”
The companies expect the transaction to close within the next three months. In addition to the $186 million in cash, Liberty Media will turn over all of its equity interests in IDT and its subsidiaries, including approximately 17.2 million shares of IDT’s Class B common stock and its approximate 5% interest in IDT Telecom. Liberty will also assume IDT Entertainment’s existing debt. Upon closing, IDT Ent. and Starz will enter into a five-year programming output agreement that will see IDT’s computer-animated movies and live-action productions air on Starz’s premium cable channels.
Starz Entertainment Group operates 16 movie channels, including flagship outlets Starz and Encore, which boast approximately 14.6 million and 26.4 million subscribers respectively. Additional services including Starz HDTV, Starz On Demand and Vongo.
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