Valiant Entertainment Acquired by DMG Entertainment

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “industry’s Number 3 publisher”, Valiant Entertainment, has been fully acquired by DMG Entertainment.

Dan Mintz, the founder and CEO of DMG Entertainment commented on the acquisition; “This is about taking it to the next level,”. He goes on to speak about whether their focus will be on publishing or on film properties when he says; “I am not looking on expanding from a publishing standpoint but from a motion picture standpoint.”

Truth be told, this is not all that unexpected as the Beijing-based company began their amicable takeover all the way back in March of 2015, as reported by the New York Times. At the time, the “nine figure investment and partnership” gave DMG Entertainment a 57% stake in Valiant Entertainment. Further, Valiant has a history of buy-outs, one of the most famous being the purchase of Valiant by video game creator Acclaim Entertainment (who later went bankrupt but that’s for another column) in the early/mid 1990s.

It was also in 2015 when Valiant partnered with Sony Pictures to bring five of their most popular properties to film: Harbinger, Bloodshot, Shadowman, Quantum and Woody that would culminate in a crossover epic entitled “Harbinger Wars“.

Dinesh Shamdasani, the CEO and CCO of Valiant Entertainment – who will be transitioning out of this role – commented on the initial part of the deal in 2105 and spoke about the relationship that Valiant has with DMG Entertainment; “I think our companies fit very well together. It’s interesting because the two companies, well, we are in very different worlds and when we sat down to talk about how we could work together, it was very exciting, because we realized that we had complementary skill sets and we’re both global brands. So one and one, in this case, equals three.”

So, while this is important news, and indeed an important development, this is also just DMG Entertainment buying out the remaining 43% of a publishing company that began three years ago.

The biggest question here is this: While Dan Mintz states he will not be focusing on the publishing arm, one has to wonder what affect the departure of the very influential Dinesh Shamdasani will leave on the publishing arm both creatively and from a corporate standpoint.  Who will be become Chief Creative Officer in his wake? Further, the Cuneos – Peter and Gavin Cuneo – will also be resigning from their roles as Chairman and CCO, respectively. At this point in time, both the EIC and Publisher will be remaining in their positions

So, while I’m as excited as ever for the film side of Valiant Entertainment, I have to wonder what the blow-back of this buyout will be, despite Fred Pierce and Warren Simons remaining on board, on the publishing side.

THAT is where the uncertainty lies.