CANADIAN media company 9 Story is believed to have paid nearly €35m to take control of Irish animation firm Brown Bag, in a deal announced last week.
No purchase price was disclosed, though industry sources say 9 Story, backed by private equity, paid a healthy premium to secure control of the highly regarded Irish outfit.
The Brown Bag brand will remain under the terms of the deal and the company plans to add 50 jobs to its Irish operations. Shareholders Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell, who are staying on to lead Brown Bag, were advised by Investec Corporate Finance in the transaction.
Brown Bag made profits of €1.6m in 2013, the last year for which it filed accounts at Companies Office, with revenues of €18m.
The purchase price reflects Brown Bag’s movement away from being largely a production house — making programmes such as Doc McStuffins and Octonauts for Disney and Nickelodeon — to developing more of its own content.
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Brown Bag received Oscar nominations for short animations Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty and Give Up Yer Aul Sins. The company won four Emmys for its work on Peter Rabbit, produced for Nickelodeon. 9 Story, founded in 2002, has created or distributed children’s programmes such as Peg + Cat, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood and Wild Kratts.
In October media entrepreneur Neil Court became an equity investor in the company, which has more than 250 creative and production staff. Court had joined the board of Brown Bag four months earlier.
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