Latest in Tom Staggs

Westbrook Studios, the Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith company behind Telluride Film Festival favorite King Richard and series Red Table Talk and Cobra Kai, has held exploratory talks with a number of potential buyers including the new venture led by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs and backed by the Blackstone…

Entertainment finance firm Forest Road has launched its second SPAC with Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs as co-CEOs and co-chairs. Units of Forest Road Acquisition Corp. II started trading today on the New York Stock Exchange as the execs begin the search for a target company in the tech, media, telecommunications or…

Forest Road Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) backed by the eponymous entertainment finance firm with a Hollywood-heavy roster of advisors has found its target, announcing plans to buy digital fitness specialist Beachbody Company and take it public. The transaction involves a three-way…

Weta Digital has tapped Ken Kamins, and former Disney COO Tom Staggs, and Google SVP Jeff Huber to its Board of Directors. The appointments come as the Peter Jackson studio has offices planned in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The trio join Weta Digital board members Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Sean Parker, Joe Letteri…

Entertainment finance firm Forest Road and a team of A-list media insiders from Tom Staggs to Kevin Mayer have closed a $300 million IPO of a new SPAC – a special purpose acquisition vehicle they'll use to buy a private company in media, tech or telecom. SPACs, which are exploding, are basically empty publicly traded…

There's a SPAC born every minute – today a new one called Forest Road Acquisition registered with the SEC to raise $250 million and hunt for media and entertainment deals with executives and advisors from former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer and former Walt Disney CFO Tom Staggs to basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal. SPACs…

While Sony Corp president and CEO Kazou Hirai is at the beginning stages of finding a replacement for outgoing Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, we’re told that Japanese management is looking for a manager who has strong experience in both film and television and also with international markets. One of the new names…

Disney CEO Bob Iger's compensation package for 2016, at $43.9 million, was down 2.3% vs 2015, according to the company proxy just filed at the SEC. But it was basically flat when you consider that the earlier period covered 53 weeks, one more than the fiscal 2016 period. Iger's take included $2.5 million in salary…

Let the Disney speculation begin. Seems like everyone in and around Wall Street has a thought about who might be heir apparent to CEO Bob Iger now that the exec long thought to have secured that role — COO Tom Staggs — says he’ll step down May 6. Staggs will stick around as an advisor through the end of the fiscal…

This is a shocker: Disney says that COO Tom Staggs, the heir apparent to CEO Bob Iger, will leave the company May 6 but remain special advisor for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends in September. The entertainment giant gave no reason for the change, and its announcement doesn’t say what Staggs will do next…

The subject was on the top of people’s minds today when Disney COO Tom Staggs appeared at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference. Disney’s share price is down 15.4% since August 4 when the company trimmed some financial forecasts, noting that ESPN had lost some subscribers…