WildBrain closes $11.8m acquisition of animation firm House of Cool

What If…?

Canadian kids & family firm WildBrain has closed its $15.5m ($11.8m) acquisition of Toronto-based animation company House Of Cool.

The deal, which was first announced in March, sees WildBrain taking full control of the firm, which is behind What If…? for Marvel Studios; Gravity Falls for Disney; Maya And The Three, The Magician’s Elephant, Trollhunters, and Dragons: Race To The Edge for Dreamworks and Netflix; and Pretzel And The Puppies for HarperCollins Productions and Apple TV+.

Launched in 2004 and led by co-founders Wes Lui and Ricardo Curtis, House Of Cool specialises in pre-production and early planning on animated series and features. Lui and Curtis have now joined the WildBrain Studios senior management team in the newly created roles of co-general managers of House of Cool.

Under the agreement, WildBrain will acquire full ownership of House of Cool, with $5.25m ($4m) in cash and rest through issuance of shares. The deal also includes a potential earn-out of up to $6m ($4.6m) based on collection of Canadian tax credits earned up to closing.

Josh Scherba, president and CEO of WildBrain, said: “We’re delighted to close our acquisition of House of Cool and to officially welcome Wes, Ricardo and their talented team to WildBrain.

“House of Cool is recognized as one of the very best pre-production houses in the global animation industry, and this highly complementary acquisition meaningfully broadens and deepens WildBrain’s capabilities for both our own and partner productions.”