A lot of places are reporting that Disney has pretty much concluded a deal to sell Miramax back to the Weinstein Brothers – the duo who originally set up the company, sold it to the House Of Mouse in 1993 and then left a few years ago – but that’s not the whole story.
The news of the Weinsteins buying back the company that was named after their parents (Miriam and Max), comes from a THR report that says they’ve teamed up with billionaire financier Ron Burkle and a few other backers to put in a bid of around $600 million in cash for the 611 film library and the Miramax name. THR says it look like they’ve got the winning bid, and that while the Weinsteins wouldn’t actually own Miramax, they would run it. However even that report comes with the proviso that ”No deal has been reached,’ a Disney spokesperson said Thursday night.”
Deadline goes further and says that on the record Disney told them, “No [Miramax] deal done and reports to the contrary are false”. Indeed, it doesn’t even look like the bidding process is finished, with Burkle and the Weinsteins planning a revised $615 million offer, and even then that would still have to beat interest from the Gores brothers and the David Bergstein-advised Pangea Media group. It’s more than possible the Weinsteins will end up the preferred bidders and enter into an exclusive negotiating window where they hammer out a final deal, but any suggestion this is definitely happening is premature.
In some ways it’d be nice if Miramax did come full circle and go back to the men who started it, but in Hollywood cash is king, and ultimately that is what will win out.