Hello Sunshine Lays Off Half Of Staff In Wake Of Acquisition By Reese Witherspoon And Mediawan

Hello Sunshine, which was recently re-acquired by co-founder Reese Witherspoon alongside France-based Mediawan, is laying off half of its staff.

The company produces film and TV titles along with maintaining a Witherspoon-branded book club. It is letting go of about 30 workers, a source familiar with the cutbacks told Deadline, was not unexpected and is part of an effort to refocus Hello Sunshine on its core strategic areas. Remaining employees are concentrating primarily on film, TV and the book club, along with related social and digital marketing as well as partnerships.

The Mediawan-Witherspoon acquisition earlier this month from Candle Media drew considerable attention in the industry given the steep drop in valuation over the past couple of years. The initial Candle deal valued Hello Sunshine at $900 million. While the recent transaction price was not disclosed, knowledgeable sources told Deadline that Candle, backed by private equity giant Blackstone, likely lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the deal.

A rep from Hello Sunshine declined to comment on the staff cuts when reached by Deadline.

Private equity had previously been flowing into the entertainment business, with firms enticed by low interest rates and a seemingly bottomless appetite from Netflix and rival streamers. When the streaming platforms curtailed their spending on programming, many suppliers suffered, and a turbulent economy marked by rising rates and fuel costs did not help.

Mediawan’s properties also include Brad Pitt’s Plan B along with the Chernin Group. The company has “built a global, independent studio by putting creators first,” Witherspoon said in a statement earlier this month. “That has always been my vision for Hello Sunshine.”

Launched in 2016 with backing from Peter Chernin and Jesse Jacobs through The Chernin Group, Hello Sunshine has gone on to rack up a number of premium film and TV credits. Among them are Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, Where the Crawdads Sing, Little Fires Everywhere, Daisy Jones & The Six, From Scratch and The Last Thing He Told Me.

Hello Sunshine co-founder Seth Rodsky has joined the company’s board alongside Witherspoon and representatives from Mediawan.