Blackstone-backed firm to acquire Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine

After reportedly being considered for purchase by Apple. Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine media company, which is behind a number of Apple TV+ originals, is selling itself to a Blackstone-backed firm.

Although the terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that it values Hello Sunshine at about $900 million. The name of the media company that Blackstone is backing is also unknown, but will be run by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs.

Apple was said to be interested in acquiring Hello Sunshine. The company, founded by Witherspoon in 2016, is behind a number of Apple TV+ originals, including "The Morning Show," "Surface," and "Truth Be Told."

Hello Sunshine was reportedly looking to value itself at about $1 billion, which is about the same range as the current deal with the Blackstone-backed firm. Witherspoon and current Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden will join the board of the new company, and will continue to operate Hello Sunshine.

In addition to producing original TV shows, Hello Sunshine also runs a bookclub and maintains a growing podcast network.

Blackstone is also reportedly spending more than $500 million to purchase shares from existing investors in Hello Sunshine, including AT&T and Emerson Collective. The latter company, interestingly, was founded by Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs.

3 Comments

melgross 33613 comments · 20 Years

About 3 years ago

Apple should have used some of that $70 billion they threw away last quarter buying shares back on this instead. Maybe they also wouldn’t have had to take out another $6 billion plus in new debt either. Compared to those numbers, this is chicken feed.

jeff fields 161 comments · 12 Years

melgross said:

Apple should have used some of that $70 billion they threw away last quarter buying shares back on this instead. Maybe they also wouldn’t have had to take out another $6 billion plus in new debt either. Compared to those numbers, this is chicken feed.

Apple didn't take out new debt because it "had to"; obviously, it has no need to do that, since it has plenty of cash on hand. Rather, this was a financial strategy.

jeff fields said:

melgross said:

Apple should have used some of that $70 billion they threw away last quarter buying shares back on this instead. Maybe they also wouldn’t have had to take out another $6 billion plus in new debt either. Compared to those numbers, this is chicken feed.

Apple didn't take out new debt because it "had to"; obviously, it has no need to do that, since it has plenty of cash on hand. Rather, this was a financial strategy.

Obviously taking on more debt is a financial strategy. That’s not even describing the reasons. It means nothing to say that as everything is a financial strategy. They’ve been taking on debt in regards to their stock buyback programs. They’ve said that explicitly. The reason they have over $110 billion in debt is because of their buyback programs. Their buybacks are complex, and the way they’ve initiated it, according to their own statements over the years, required them to take on debt rather than to use certain monies.

I can’t explain it all here, but it’s not just a matter of Apple using their cash. They’re using cash from some areas, and not others. It’s a matter of interest payments opposing tax payments. There are rules about share buybacks, and Apple imposed their own addition rules over where they will take the money from in order to do this.

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