Type Private Predecessor Caravan Pictures Founded 1998 | Industry Film Products Motion pictures | |
Divisions Spyglass Home Entertainment
Spyglass Television Website www.spyglassentertainment.com Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States Parent organization Cerberus Capital Management Founders Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum Key people Jeffrey Chernov, Jonathan Glickman | ||
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Spyglass Entertainment is an American film production and international sales company, co-founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998. It is owned by Cerberus Capital Management.
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Barber and Birnbaum serve as co-CEOs, while Jonathan Glickman serves as the current President of Production. Jeffrey Chernov was once a production executive.
History
In August 1998, Roger Birnbaum, Caravan's co-founder, left to co-found Spyglass Entertainment at Roth's prompting in which Disney takes an equity stake and a five-year distribution agreement. With Disney cutting its yearly production output, Roth recommended forming a self-financing production firm such as New Regency Productions. After the remaining three films were released, the company went inactive. Caravan's slate of movies projects and an initial financial advance of $10 million to $20 million against future overages was also contributed by Disney. Spyglass based their operations at Disney's studios. In October 1998, European media conglomerates Kirch Group and Mediaset invested in theatrical, video and television distribution rights to between 15 and 25 films over five year for Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and the former Soviet Union. By May 2000, Disney had taken a 10% equity stake in Spyglass along with Svensk Film Industri of Scandinavia and Lusomundo of Portugal.
In 2002, Spyglass considered a merger with Intermedia but the deal was never carried out. With expiration of the Disney distribution deal in October, Spyglass signed a five-year distribution deal with DreamWorks while Disney retained its stake. In April 2008 at MIP TV, Spyglass and Canal Plus agreed to a multi-window TV deal for its movies lasting until 2009. By 2010, Spyglass had moved to Westwood and Cerberus Capital had purchased the company.
On December 20, 2010, the founders of Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-Chairs and co-CEOs of the holding company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had recently at that time emerged from bankruptcy. Since then, Spyglass' operation has been scaled back, though Barber and Birnbaum will continue to operate it through the handling of its library.