Much has been made lately in Hollywood, and on Wall Street, of the value of talent-based production companies. That’s partly because former Disney executive Kevin Mayer has been running around with $2 billion of Blackstone’s money, trying to purchase and roll up these entities. Add to that the eyebrow-raising $900 million value ascribed to Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine shingle this summer when she sold to Mayer’s group—even though, as I attempted to explain at the time, the price tag wasn’t really $900 million.
It’s a sign of the times that the very famous person’s mantra has morphed from What’s my quote? to What’s my valuation?
