Disney has sold Miramax, but not to Bob and Harvey Weinstein as many had hoped. Instead, a group of investors led by construction executive Ronald N. Tutor and CEO of Colony Capital Thomas J. Barrack Jr. have bought Miramax through a company called Filmyard Holdings.
Disney was thought to have killed Miramax off in January, making it a sub-division of Walt Disney Studios. In fact, Disney began looking for a buyer for the art house studio, and the Weinsteins were in the hunt.
The Weinsteins founded Miramax in 1979 and turned it into a highly-successful studio before selling up to Disney for $80 million in 1993. The brothers moved on to form The Weinstein Company, but still held a place for Miramax in their hearts.
The Weinsteins didn’t feel the $600 million plus Disney wanted for Miramax was a fair price, but someone else clearly did. I guess we now need to wait and see what the future holds for Miramax in the hands of its new owners.
This is another example of people with no class. Disney makes BILLIONS of dollars a year and they couldn’t lower the price a bit for the co-founders? That’s messed up.