The Tornante Company, LLC is an American privately held investment firm founded in 2005 and owned by former

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

CEO

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner ( ; born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film ...

. Tornante invests in, acquires, and operates media and entertainment companies. When Eisner was bicycling around Italy, he saw a signpost that inspired the name Tornante for his company. Tornante means "hairpin turn" in Italian.

History

The Tornante Company was founded by

in 2005, after he left

. In 2006, Tornante formed Vuguru production company with backing from

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties. Operations Current television brands owned by Rogers include two television sys ...

of Canada. The company made a $12.5 million venture funding round investment in Veoh in April 2006. Tornante purchased Team Baby Entertainment, a maker of infants and toddlers sports-related DVDs in June 2006. On March 5, 2007, the company and

Madison Dearborn Partners Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...

purchased Topps for $385 million. Tornante planned to have Team Baby merge with Topps. In June 2015, Tornante Co. formed Tornante-Sinclair LLC, a TV production company, with Sinclair TV Group. Eisner's company signed in November 2015 a worldwide distribution deal with

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

to release the firm's self-funded slate of films. In August 2017, Tornante closed on the purchase of the Portsmouth Football Club for an undisclosed deal; however, BBC reported that Eisner had offered £5.67 million "and will invest an extra £10m."

Holdings

Current investment holdings of the firm include: * AirTime * Clique Media (now Clique Brands) *Metaverse * Omaze * Portsmouth Football Club *Rad *Spark Neuro * TaskRabbit * Tornante-Sinclair LLC (50%) a joint venture TV production company with Sinclair TV Group for court shows, comedy programs, game shows and talk shows in first-run syndicated * Tornante Television, Los Angeles based subsidiary overseeing Tornante-Sinclair via Tornante co-president, Lauren Corrao. The unit also produces the adult animated comedies ''

BoJack Horseman ''BoJack Horseman'' is an American adult animation, adult animated tragicomedy television series created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, and Aaron Paul. Set primarily in ...

'', '' Tuca & Bertie'' and '' Undone'', and in conjunction with Trifecta Entertainment and Media the syndicated court reality show '' Judge Faith''. * Vuguru (2006–) production company with backing from

of Canada Former holdings of the firm include: * Team Baby Entertainment (June 2006) a maker of infants and toddlers sports-related DVDs, which merged with Topps * Veoh (stake) April 2006–April 7, 2010

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tornante Company The Tornante Company Investment companies of the United States Holding companies of the United States Private equity firms of the United States Holding companies established in 2005 Michael Eisner