Deluxe Entertainment Logo (Photo : Deluxe Entertainment)
American company Deluxe Entertainment hired an investment bank to look for partners in China. The company provides visual effects to Hollywood films and TV shows, and counts hit series “Game of Thrones” as among its clients.
As the world’s second-largest film market, China has attracted entertainment companies that noticed the wave of investments in the U.S. by Chinese conglomerates. Among the recent buy-in by Chinese giants of entertainment assets are Legendary Entertainment by the Dalian Wanda Group. Cirque du Soleil, an acrobatic performance company, was also purchased by another Chinese firm, the Fosun Group.
Global Growth Strategy
The search for a partner in China is part of Deluxe’s ongoing strategy to grow and globalize the firm, John Wallace, chief executive of Deluxe, said, Reuters reported. Deluxe hired the Goldman Sachs Group to search for a partner for Deluxe in China, a spokesman for MacAndrews & Forbes, said. It is the operating firm owners by Ron Perelman who owns Deluxe.
The partner that Deluxe is seeking must be able to provide new business opportunities in China and capital for its creative services unit which provides sound mixing, film coloring and other post-production services to moviemakers. Its competitors in the visual effect business are Industry Light & Magic of Walt Disney Co. and Technicolor SA in France.
Oscar Nomination
Besides “Game of Thrones,” Deluxe also provided visual effects to the movie “Deepwater Horizon." Jason Billington, the VFX supervisor of Deluxe in Iloura, was nominated on Jan. 24 in the 89th Academy Award for Visual Effects, together with Craig Hammack, Jason Snell and Burt Dalton, for that film about the oil spill. The team of 125 VFX artists, led by Billington, created the massive engine explosion that caused the fire on the oil rig Deepwater Horizon. It is his second Oscar award nomination.
