Fox Corp., an American television broadcasting company, has reportedly announced the acquisition of Bento Box Entertainment, an animation studio and creator of the popular sitcom Bob’s Burgers. Seemingly, the financial terms were not disclosed yet, while the acquisition was rumored to be at a likely valuation of under $50 million.
Sources familiar with the matter mentioned that it is the very first acquisition of an entertainment property for Fox Company since shareholder Rupert Murdoch sold majority of Fox entertainment assets, including the 20th Century television and Fox film studio, to Walt Disney Co. in the month of March.
Apparently, this move represents the desire of Fox to remain a leader in the area of prime-time animation. The Fox Network also broadcasts Family Guy and The Simpsons.
Sources further mentioned that Bento Box, which is situated in North Hollywood, will function as a stand-alone unit within Fox, a prominent division led by Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment.
Supposedly, Bento Box is planning to produce two other series designed for the Fox Network, The Great North from Loren Bouchard, the maker of Bob’s Burgers and Duncanville, from producer Amy Poehler. Bob’s Burger was among the assets of Fox Studio that Disney had acquired in April 2019 for $71.3 billion. However, now Fox will share in the profits and along with this it will have complete rights to future projects produced by Bento Box.
Prominent sources stated that the executive team of the animation studio including co-founders Joel Kuwahara and Scott Greenberg will continue to manage the operation. This year, Fox is planning to launch SideCar, an incubator headed by existing Fox network head Gail Berman, to produce unscripted and scripted content.
Recently, Fox has also announced an agreement to acquire 67% of Credible Labs Inc. for $265 million. The San Francisco digital site offers consumer lending information, sources added.
Source Credits: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-06/fox-buys-bento-box-animation-bobs-burgers