According to Variety, Vin Di Bona, creator and executive producer of ABC’s franchise America’s Funniest Home Videos, has sold a majority stake in Vin Di Bona Productions and Fishbowl Worldwide Media to a private investor.
What’s Happening:
- The creator and executive producer of ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos has sold a majority stake in Vin Di Bona Productions and Fishbowl Worldwide Media to a private investor group led by Clarion Capital Partners.
- The transaction is believed to be valued at nine figures, with the value of the AFV library and Di Bona’s related businesses, but no official comment has been given on financial terms.
- Di Bona has had many interested in his company over the years, but he said this was the right transaction for three reasons.
- First, his 79th birthday is in April.
- Second, "he’s energized by the chance to use the company he’s built over five decades as the foundation of a larger content studio."
- And third, his long association with Schiff and Stevens made him comfortable enough to take them and Clarion on as partners.
- Di Bona noted that he “maintains full control of the AFV universe, and he has carved out a lane that allows him to produce “outside the deal” should the opportunity arise. But his priority will be on helping to build up the Venture 10 group.”
What They're Saying:
- “At 78, soon to be 79, it’s really time to start estate planning and looking out for the future of my family,” Di Bona said. “This was the right opportunity at the right time.”
- “Mostly I’m going to focus on building a larger machine so that we can take advantage of what we have in our quiver in terms of videos and projects,” Di Bona said. “I want to work with John and Hans to really expand and pick up companies and create new companies.”
- “We’re really going to go at it full force,” Di Bona said. “I would really like to find some young producers with great ideas who need to be financed. A lone producer can’t afford the time frame that it takes to get a project developed and bought and made. These are the kind of opportunities we’re looking at. This is an opportunity for me to do this kind of development with people who really understand the business.”