Latest in Tom Staggs

With the unexpected return of Bob Iger last month for a new stint as Disney CEO, the entertainment giant’s veteran chief financial officer Christine McCarthy has emerged as a leading contender to take over the top job. “Christine has always been a force to be reckoned with, but you have to put her on…

EXCLUSIVE: Candle Media-backed Spanish-language powerhouse Exile Content Studio has promoted Nando Vila to succeed Daniel Eilemberg as Head of Studio. Vila moves up from his Head of Audio and Unscripted Television post and will oversee the Latin-focused outfit’s film and TV content strategy. He is a former Vice…

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs have been around the media business long enough to resist the temptation to overreact to Netflix's latest travails. Even though their emerging investment firm, Candle Media, owns two key Netflix suppliers—CoComelon production company Moonbug Entertainment and Fauda producer Faraway Road—they…

Special purpose acquisition companies—known as SPACs—have been all the rage in the world of investment for the last two years, and they've made a mark in the media space, but is the trend slowing down? Known as 'blank check companies', SPACs are publicly traded investment vehicles that raise capital solely to acquire…

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs' Candle Media has hired seasoned executives Courtney Cappa and Kendall Ostrow as, respectively, SVP, Finance & Accounting, and SVP, Business Development & Community. Cappa will help drive Candle's corporate finance efforts including building up a corporate team to oversee financial planning…

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs' Candle Media have struck again, announcing the purchase ATTN, a social media storytelling company for Gen Z and Millennials. Candle said today it will help provide scale, capital and expertise to accelerate ATTN's growth as it continues "to create original content for Gen Z and Millennials…

UPDATED with official announcement: Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs' Blackstone-backed Candle Media has formally clinched its latest deal — for Faraway Road Productions, the company behind Fauda and Hit & Run.  The acquistion had been anticipated and marks the latest expansion of the company into content in a handful of…

An investment firm backed by Blackstone and run by onetime Disney colleagues Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs has taken a minority stake in Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Inc. The deal, confirmed to Deadline by a person familiar with the investment and later announced officially, followed discussions of a…

The media venture run by Disney alums Kevin Mayer and Tom Stags and backed by private equity firm Blackstone has acquired Moonbug Entertainment, maker of popular kids shows like CoComelon. The valuation of the deal, which had been rumored in recent weeks, was not specified in the official announcement, but people…

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…