PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
Hello Sunshine Leaves Candle Media
Dimmed // Illustration by Kate Walker
Candle Media — the Blackstone-backed roll-up firm founded by Disney vets Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs — is facing an existential crisis following the departure of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.
The Big Picture: The economics behind PE-backed M&A firms have soured over the past few years, thanks to spending pullbacks at studios and streamers, the end of Peak TV, and stubbornly high interest rates. Candle seems to have suffered the most uncontrollable fate of all — bad timing. Candle’s woes are simply a microcosm of what’s happening across the global entertainment industry.
Behind The Scenes: Sometimes, a war chest of billions of dollars can’t buy sustained success.
Candle suddenly came under the microscope when it was announced that Reese Witherspoon had partnered with French media conglomerate Mediawan to buy back her company.
According to Deadline, Candle likely lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the sale, considering it took a majority stake in the company at a $900 million valuation in 2021.
Candle has spent $4 billion on acquisitions since its inception (three-fourths of which went toward its most successful brand, kids-content studio Moonbug), and reports suggest the company is billions of dollars in debt.
Candle’s other stakes — kids-content studio Moonbug, Will Smith’s Westbrook, Spain-based Exile Content Studio, and social media storytelling brand ATTN — haven’t fully paid off as expected either.
Closing Thoughts: Five years ago, a billion or two in debt would’ve been totally fine when Wall Street and financial firms were completely focused on growth — there was a lot of cheap money being thrown around in a scale-at-all-costs race for dominance. These days, there’s not enough money being spent by studios or streamers to justify the loans taken out to purchase celebrity-backed production companies… and those loans have now become more expensive.
That’s math that doesn’t work for anyone, hence why LeBron James had to combine his SpringHill banner with Fulwell 73. The only way out seems to be becoming too big to fail.
Prediction: It’s possible that Candle Media could sell Moonbug to pay down debt and make smaller, strategic acquisitions. If that happens, expect Disney and Netflix to get into a bidding war.
Together with Sundays for Dogs
Turn The Bag Around
Most dog food marketing lives on the front of the bag. Sundays wants you to read the back.
Sundays was founded by Dr. Tory, a veterinarian who wanted something better for her own dog, Mabel.
Every recipe is made with over 80% real meat and nutrient-rich extracts of fruits, vegetables, seeds, and grains, providing complete and balanced nutrition for every life stage.
If an ingredient sounds like it came from a chemistry lab, it’s not in the bag.
TFP readers might be surprised by what is (and isn’t) inside. See the label for yourself and get 30% off your first order with Sundays For Dogs.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, polled, and copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.