Hollywood producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein and their financial backer, billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies, have an exclusive negotiating window to negotiate buying Disney's Miramax Films division, three sources with knowledge of the situation said on Friday.
The Walt Disney Co was seeking about $700 million for Miramax, sources said earlier this week. The Weinsteins and Yucaipa are offering $625 million, the New York Times reported on Friday, for the shuttered studio with a library of more than 600 films, including "Pulp Fiction."
The window temporarily sidelines competing bidders, one of the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were not public. A Weinstein spokeswoman declined to comment, and officials with Disney did not return calls.
Film executive David Bergstein said he is advising construction magnate Ron Tutor and other investors who had offered $650 million.
Financiers Alec and Tom Gores are behind another offer and are being advised by their brother, Sam Gores, who heads the Paradigm Talent Agency.
The Gores offered $550 million, but a source said this week that they increased that bid, although it was unclear by how much.
Revelations that Disney was floating a sale of Miramax surfaced in media reports in January.
One source familiar with the deal said that Disney could close the sale next week, while another source said it could happen within the next two weeks.
A third source said the Weinsteins have an advantage in the auction, because they still control certain rights to titles in the library that had been made under their long stewardship of Miramax.
Bob and Harvey Weinstein founded Miramax in 1979 and sold it to Disney in 1993 for $80 million. The pair continued to run the company until they left in 2005 to form The Weinstein Co.
A source said that if the sale is complete, Yucaipa would own Miramax and the Weinsteins would manage it.
REUTERS
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