Harvey Weinstein Can Raise As Much Money As He Likes, Thank You Very Much
Admit it: You miss the Weinsteins. Brothers Harvey and Bob announced that they've raised $490 million to fund their new empire. From the LAT:
Miramax Film Corp. co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein said Monday that they have completed raising money for their new movie studio, pulling in $490 million in equity.
The brothers previously disclosed they raised $230.5 million for Weinstein Co., with an eye toward increasing the amount to at least $420 million.
Harvey Weinstein said that the company could have raised significantly more.
"Not only did we surpass the goal of $420 million," he said, "we wanted to maintain control of the company so we had to cut back $200 million to $300 million more of investment opportunities."
Sure, Harvey could have raised $5 billion if he really felt like it, but he didn't want to seem greedy. Moreover, holding on to 51% of the company allows the brothers to maintain quality control over the torture of employees or filmmakers who turn in overlong cuts of their passion projects. No one likes a sloppy beating from an outside investor.
Bonus Weinstein Co. projection: Based on that $490 million in equity, we estimate that the first round of layoffs will probably arrive in June of 2006. Get your resumes together soon—those guys can really spend when they have something to prove.
