The Weinstein Company Sale Goes Through, New Female-Led Studio Rising In Its Place

This entire Weinstein Company thing has been a mess- and I do truly feel sorry for the employees who had nothing to do with their CEO’s….issues….losing their jobs in the wake of the turmoil.

It had been reported (due in large part to a letter sent out by TWC) that the sale to investors Maria Contreras-Sweet had fallen through, and the company was beginning bankruptcy proceedings.  That, apparently, isn’t the case now as a deal has been reached for the acquisition of TWC and it’s assets.

Deadline reports that Contreras-Sweet and the Weinstein Co.’s board of directors reached an agreement today for the purchase of assets at the office of New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (who is also Contreras-Sweet’s investment partner).  The plan, reportedly, is to use the TWC assets to launch a female-led movie studio whose board of directors made up of a majority of women.

Here’s the entire statement of Contreras-Sweet’s:

Our team is pleased to announce that we have taken an important step and have reached an agreement to purchase assets from The Weinstein Company in order to launch a new company, with a new board and a new vision that embodies the principles that we have stood by since we began this process last fall. Those principles have never wavered and have always been to build a movie studio led by a board of directors made up of a majority of independent women, save about 150 jobs, protect the small businesses who are owed money and create a victims’ compensation fund that would supplement existing insurance coverage for those who have been harmed. The cornerstone of our plan has been to launch a new company that represents the best practices in corporate governance and transparency.

This next step represents the best possible pathway to support victims and protect employees.

We are grateful to the New York State Attorney General’s office for their efforts in helping us reach an agreement and we are grateful to our investors who have believed in this process and in the compelling value of a female-led company. We also want to thank all the parties who returned to the negotiating table to help us reach this development.

I have had a long-standing commitment to fostering women ownership in business. This potential deal is an important step to that end.

Poetic justice, and we can’t wait to see what the new female studio’s first project is.