The Weinstein Co. bankruptcy saga may finally be near a conclusion.
In a packed Delaware courtroom on Tuesday, Judge Mary Walrath said she’d happily approve the sale of The Weinstein Co. to stalking-horse bidder Lantern Capital Partners, according to the proceedings observed remotely by TheWrap.
The Dallas-based private equity firm was the initial bidder to come forward as a stalking-horse bidder for TWC and virtually all of its assets, and the company agreed to keep the studio’s employees on as a “going concern” in a $310 million bid.
Last week, TWC announced that it had accepted Lantern Capital as a winning bid, despite a late last-minute bid from Broadway producer Howard Kagan’s Inclusion Media. Kagan and representatives for TWC went back-and-forth for about a week, with Kagan arguing he wasn’t given enough context and information regarding certain contracts held by TWC to make a qualifying bid.
The TWC board remained steadfast that Lantern’s bid gave the company, in the midst of pressure from the creditors’ committee, to seriously consider Kagan and his company’s offer.
There’s no indication at this time whether there are any options for Kagan moving forward now that the court has approved the sale to Lantern.
TWC listed both assets and liabilities of between $500 million and $1 billion. Top creditors include Union Bank and Bank of America, both of which are owed a combined $156 million.
Unsecured creditors include China’s Wanda Pictures ($14.4 million), marketing company Palisades Media ($13.7 million) and David Boies’ law firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner ($5.7 million).
Robert del Genioof of FTI Consulting has served as chief restructuring officer, overseeing the company’s finances and operations during the bankruptcy process. The board also retained Moelis as its banker and two law firms in Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Richards, Layton & Finger.
The New York-based company, founded in 2005 by, has cut an outsize swath in the indie film world, producing back-to-back Oscar Best Picture winners (2010’s “The King’s Speech” and 2011’s “The Artist”) as well as mainstream hits like Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” “Scary Movie 4” and the family film “Paddington.”