Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Blackstone-backed company is nearing a deal to acquire Moonbug Entertainment, which produces popular children’s programming like “CoComelon,” The Wrap has learned. The deal would value the company for as much as $3 billion, an individual with knowledge of the talks told TheWrap.
Mayer and Staggs did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment, nor did Moonbug. Blackstone declined to comment.
The deal, which is not yet finalized, would add to the two former Disney executives’ portfolio that so far includes Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Hello Sunshine was valued at $900 million in that deal.
The Information was first to report on the potential deal between Moonbug and Staggs-Mayer.
On Netflix, “CoComelon” is one of the streaming giant’s most popular shows, routinely showing up in the daily Top 10. It’s based off a YouTube channel of the same name and also has a merchandising wing.
Mayer’s and Staggs’s new company, which does not yet have a name, has the financial backing of Blackstone — but is not the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that Mayer and Staggs had also announced.
Staggs and Mayer have been looking to acquire content companies as part of their new venture, which would serve as a holding company. Along with Hello Sunshine and Moonbug, the two have held talks with Will Smith’s Westbrook Entertainment, Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings and Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content. Talks fell apart for those three.
“There’s a number of them that are interesting and we’ve got varying stages of discussions with several. That doesn’t mean that any of those will get done. But at the same time, we think there’s real opportunity here,” Staggs told TheWrap shortly after the Hello Sunshine deal was announced in August. “We really think that there’s the opportunity to pull together a really forward-looking independent content, technology and social commerce company that is built for where the marketplace is, and is going. We see the opportunity and we’re excited about it.”