Candle Media is a Blackstone-backed,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

-based media company co-founded by former

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

executives

Kevin A. Mayer Kevin A. Mayer (born 1962) is an American business executive who is the co-founder and co-CEO of Candle Media, alongside Thomas O. Staggs, the former COO and CFO of The Walt Disney Company. Backed by Blackstone Inc., Candle Media acquired Hello ...

and

Thomas O. Staggs Thomas Owen Staggs (born 1961) is an American business executive and investor. He formerly worked at Disney for nearly 27 years, beginning in 1990, serving as chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of The Walt Disney Co ...

. Candle Media owns the companies

Moonbug Entertainment Moonbug Entertainment (also known as just Moonbug, stylised as all-lowercase moonbug) is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an overseas office in Los Angeles, United States which creates ...

, Hello Sunshine, and the production company of Israeli thriller series ''

Fauda ''Fauda'' (, from ''fawḍā'', meaning "chaos") is an Israeli television series developed by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff drawing on their experiences in the Israel Defense Forces. The series premiered on February 15, 2015. It tells the stor ...

'', Faraway Road Productions. It also owned a minority stake on

Westbrook Inc. Westbrook Inc. is an American multimedia and entertainment venture company founded by actor Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith. The company was founded in 2019, in order to execute the Smith Family's global content. It is headqu ...

History

Before co-founding Candle Media in 2021, Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs originally led a

blank-check company A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional i ...

Forest Road Acquisition Corp. In August 2021, the company began acquiring content companies starting with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. In November 2021, Candle Media acquired

, a children’s entertainment company that has produced shows including CoComelon and Blippi, for nearly $3 billion. In January 2022, the company announced a strategic minority investment in Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook. In the same month, Candle Media also acquired Faraway Road Productions for an estimated $50 million. In May 2022, Candle Media acquired ATTN:, a social media storytelling company, for $100 million. In the same month, the company also announced that it will acquire Exile Content Studio, a Spanish production studio. To date, Candle Media has spent approximately $4 billion on acquisition deals.

Subsidiaries

References

{{reflist The Blackstone Group companies Mass media companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California 2021 establishments in California Companies based in Los Angeles Mass media companies established in 2021 American companies established in 2021