Mediawan leads race to buy ‘significant stake’ in Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment

Outer Range

French production group Mediawan is leading the race to buy a “significant stake” in Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.

The French group, which is backed by US private equity firm KKR, is understood to be among a clutch of interested buyers, with talks not yet exclusive. Bloomberg broke the news.

Plan B was launched by Pitt and Jennifer Aniston more than 15 years ago, with Pitt then taking full ownership in 2005. It is behind shows such as The Underground Railroad and Outer Range for Amazon Prime Video, Lego Masters for Fox and movies such as The Departed. It also has a first-look deal with Amazon Studios.

Mediawan was launched by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse in 2015. It subsequently partnered with Germany’s private equity-backed Leonine Studios and has been in acquisitive mood, picking up Lagardere Studios in 2020 and Doctor Foster firm Drama Republic last year.

It also own firms such as Storia Television, the company created to sell EuropaCorp’s TV business, and took majority stakes in Makever and Mon Voisin Productions in 2018, as well as AB Groupe a year earlier.

In June last year the Mediawan Alliance took a minority stake in Leonine, which is the fast-growing German media group also backed by KKR. Its interests include Tele München Group, Universum Film, Universum, i&u TV and Dark producer Wiedemann & Berg TV, which is now led by former Bavaria Fiction chief creative officer Oliver Vogel.