The story
Founded by Eric Ellenbogen in 2000.1
Classic Media was founded by Eric Ellenbogen and John Engelman in May 2000 after acquiring the United Productions of America (UPA) catalog and assets from the estate of Henry Saperstein. Frank Biondi, the former head of Universal Studios, and film producer Steve Tisch invested in the company. Classic Media then bought most assets of The Harvey Entertainment Company on March 11, 2001. On August 16, 2001, Classic Media and Random House won a joint bid for the assets of Western Publishing, with Classic Media acquiring the entertainment division (including the Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics libraries) and Random House acquiring the Little Golden Books publishing properties. Classic then purchased the rights to the Jay Ward characters and formed Bullwinkle Studios, a joint venture with Jay Ward Productions, to manage them sometime in 2002. On October 31, 2003, Classic Media purchased the assets of the bankrupt Big Idea Entertainment catalog. By 2007, Bullwinkle Studios became converted to a functioning studio.
On April 7, 2005, the company underwent a recapitalization led by a group of investors, including Spectrum Equity Investors and existing investors headed by Pegasus Capital Advisors. Additionally, a senior debt facility of $100 million was secured through a bank group led by JP Morgan Chase Bank. With the deal, Spectrum became the majority owner over the existing investors, with a representative on the company board of directors.
In August 2006, Classic Media announced a joint venture with ION Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment and book publisher Scholastic Corporation to launch Qubo, a kids' entertainment network.
On December 14, 2006, it was announced that Classic Media would be acquired by UK-based rival Entertainment Rights for $210.0 million. Before the acquisition was completed, both companies announced distribution and production agreements with Genius Products LLC, replacing the Sony Wonder deal.
Entertainment Rights fell in to administration on April 1, 2009. On the same day, Boomerang Media LLC, formed by Ellenbogen and Engelman in 2008 with equity funding from GTCR, announced that it would acquire Entertainment Rights' principal UK and American subsidiaries, including Classic Media, Inc. and Big Idea Entertainment, from its administrators. On May 11, 2009, Boomerang Media announced that the former UK and American subsidiaries of Entertainment Rights would operate as a unified business under the name Classic Media, while Big Idea would operate under its own name.
Classic Media purchased the then-upcoming manga-inspired television series My Life Me from the bankrupt TV-Loonland AG on February 20, 2010 and later bought the Noddy and Olivia brands on March 7 and 19, respectively in 2012 from Chorion.
Sale to DreamWorks Animation (2012–present)
On July 23, 2012, DreamWorks Animation announced that they would acquire Classic Media for $155 million from Boomerang Media, with the deal closing in September of that year. Afterwards, Classic Media began trading as DreamWorks Classics to associate itself with its parent company, although the parent company remains under the Classic Media name.
On October 3, 2012, DreamWorks Classics made its first post-DreamWorks sale by securing licensing and distribution rights to Studio Hari's The Owl & Co outside of France and other French-speaking territories.
Read the full text
On September 17, 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced they had purchased the programming library of the British animation studio Chapman Entertainment, and placed distribution through DreamWorks' UK-based TV distribution operation.
On June 18, 2014, DreamWorks Animation bought the Felix the Cat brand and added it to the DreamWorks Classics portfolio.
On April 28, 2016, NBCUniversal announced it would buy out DreamWorks Animation in a $3.8 billion deal. The buyout was completed on August 22.
In January 2020, Classic Media pre-sold streaming rights to three series; Lassie, George of the Jungle and Mr. Magoo, by CBS All Access (now as Paramount+).
From Wikipedia’s article on DreamWorks Classics, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4