We haven’t steered our entertainment dollars toward the brooding, mountain-lion-eating vampires of the “Twilight” epics, but we’d certainly be more interested in seeing one if it featured a crossover from the no-nonsense Madea.
As expected, Rizvi Traverse Management-backed Summit Entertainment has been sold to Lionsgate. (Fun fact: Lionsgate says its library has 13,000 titles – this means that at least 12,900 of them are not “Saw” or Tyler Perry movies.)
Lionsgate said the majority of the $412.5 million purchase price was funded with cash on Summit’s balance sheet. Other financing included $55 million of existing Lionsgate cash, $45 million of cash received for a new convertible note offering, $50 million of common stock and an additional $20 million of cash or stock to be issued within 60 days.
The “Twilight” films have have grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide so far, according to Lionsgate, which has high hopes for its “Hunger Games” franchise debuting March 23.
Rizvi Traverse invested in Summit in 2007. In March, the investment firm teamed with Hugh Hefner on the acquisition of Playboy Enterprises Inc. Rizvi Traverse’s other holdings include aircraft management company Key Air.
Dow Jones previously reported that Rizvi Traverse was planning to raise $300 million for its second fund. Its debut effort raised about $249 million.
(This post has been corrected. The purchase of Summit was valued at $412.5 million.)