Latest in Financing

Epic Games, the maker of top-selling videogame Fortnite, has raised $1.25 billion in new funding from investors including KKR, Iconiq Capital and Smash Ventures. Disney and Endeavor are among those with small stakes in Epic. Chinese conglomerate Tencent owns 40% of the company, which was valued by Bloomberg over the…

Open Road, the latest independent film company to hit the rocks, has received a “stalking-horse” bid of $87.5 million in Delaware bankruptcy court from a buyer identified as “OR Acquisition Co.” According to court documents, the bid is backed by New York-based private equity firm Raven Capital Management. The firm’s…

Deepening the investment of Hollywood agencies in content production, United Talent Agency has teamed with Valence Media and its Media Rights Capital subsidiary on a joint venture to be called Civic Center Media. The new entity, in which UTA will hold an undisclosed minority stake, will develop, produce and finance…

Inked Brands, an e-commerce company that helps social media influencers convert their followers to customers, has completed a fundraising round with investments from the production company Archer Gray and from Jim Fielding, president of consumer products for 20th Century Fox. The Kentucky-based company as raised $6…

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel offered a roomful of Wall Street types his takes on several hot topics in media while also making a case for his privately held company’s progress in evolving from its traditional representation origins. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York, Emanuel said at the…

UPDATED at 6:50AM PT with company statement. Global Road has begun its bankruptcy process, as expected, filing for Chapter 11 protection. Following the scenario sources had floated, the filing was made under the Open Road releasing unit, with the IM Global division remaining separate. That maneuver is akin to cutting…

EXCLUSIVE: Ever since it planted a flag in the shifting ground of the movie business, STX Entertainment has fashioned itself a different kind of studio, an operation bent on proving Hollywood's long-held assumptions about mid-budget films wrong. That bid to stand apart has faced a harsh test this month as two…

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, who first worked together decades ago at the Walt Disney Co., have re-teamed for one of the most lucrative fundraising efforts by a startup. They have secured an initial round of $1 billion for their mobile video network, NewTV, with an eye toward launching the subscription service…

Another feature trilogy, The Rogue Warfare Trilogy, financed by Ingenious and sold worldwide by Highland Film Group and 5150 Action Productions is in the midst of production, with stunt coordinator turned director Mike Gunther filming all three movies at the same time. Will Yun Lee is headlining what is a…

A top executive at the blockchain specialist SingularDTV said the company is “very optimistic” it will gain regulatory approval to enable crowdfunding through its platform. Letting members of the company’s online community directly invest in film, TV and music projects would close a key loop, said Kim Jackson…

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has added two veterans of the sector to its media and telecom advisory team. Sam Powers will start this fall as head of Americas Media & Telecom Investment Banking for the investment bank, which is a unit of BofA. He had been heading up a comparable group at UBS. Randy Russell has…

A new venture fund focused on African-American content has launched and teamed with its first partner, Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Entertainment. The Essence Creators and Makers Fund has a $20 million endowment from Essence Ventures, the parent company of Essence Communications. The fund will support and partner with…