Weinstein Co. names Lantern Capital winner of bankruptcy sale

The Weinstein Company has officially named Lantern Capital as the winning bidder of its bankruptcy auction.

Weinstein Co., which has struggled to bounce back since the dismissal of its co-founder Harvey Weinstein over accusations of sexual harassment, has revealed that Lantern will now acquire the film and TV assets of the company.

The sale is yet to be approved by judges, including Delaware’s Mary Walrath.

“Lantern’s bid clearly achieves the highest and best value for the estate and its creditors,” said Ivona Smith, a member of The Weinstein Company Board of Representatives. “We look forward to working with Lantern to close the transaction and consummate the going concern sale.”

A $315 million bid was also made by theatre producer Howard Kagan, but Weinstein Co. said that his company, Inclusion Media, “contemplated substantially less value to the estate, and did not include a purchase agreement, a financing commitment, a deposit, or a number of other requirements for a qualified bid.”

In a full statement, Weinstein Co. said:

The Weinstein Company is pleased to announce that Lantern Capital is the winning bidder in the sale for substantially all of the assets of the Company. No other bid offered as much value to the estate as the Lantern bid, which was also the Debtors’ stalking horse bid and was negotiated with input from the Office of the New York Attorney General.

Earlier today, news outlets reported that the Company received a letter of interest from Inclusion Media, a potential bidder backed by Howard Kagan. That letter, submitted after the bid deadline, was a conditional indication of interest that contemplated substantially less value to the estate, and did not include a purchase agreement, a financing commitment, a deposit, or a number of other requirements for a qualified bid.

While the Inclusion letter did claim to offer certain attractive aspects for victims, the Debtors concluded after discussions with Mr. Kagan that the Inclusion letter was not a bona fide offer. Thus, in furtherance of its fiduciary duty, the Board selected the bid that offered, with certainty, the most overall value to the estate.