Shamrock Capital Closes $400 Million Content Investment Fund For Entertainment IP

Shamrock Capital, the LA-based investment firm created by the late Roy E. Disney, has closed a new content fund with $400 million in committed capital to acquire existing entertainment IP rights in film, TV, music and video games.

The Shamrock Capital Content Fund II follows an inaugural fund that raised $250 million and holds an interest in more than 800 films, 1,000 television episodes, and 5,000 music compositions. The funds don’t invest in unreleased content but beyond that have a broad scope, eyeing product that was just released into its initial window, to content that’s decades old. It tends to acquire rights directly from producers, directors, showrunners and artists versus major studios.

The deals aren’t announced but occasionally a seller will agree to make them public. In fall 2018, Shamrock acquired Tor Hermansen and Mikkel Erikson’s Stargate music publishing catalog with Katy Perry’s Firework, Rihanna’s Diamonds and Beyonce’s Irreplacable.

SCCF II’s limited partners include existing and new investors from pension funds, sovereign wealth, endowments and foundations, institutions and family offices (private wealth management advisory firms to ultra-high-net-worth investors).

“The market’s response to Fund II speaks to the strength of our strategy,” said Patrick Russo, Partner at Shamrock Capital. The Content Fund acquires existing entertainment intellectual property rights with an eye to long-term revenue streams across multiple distribution platforms globally; predictable post-release performance characteristics; and resilience to general economic trends. Content as a category is well positioned now to benefit from COVID-19 video viewing tailwinds and exploding competition among new streaming services.

Shamrock also announced that in connection with the close of the new fund, Jason Sklar has been promoted to Partner and Andrew Landenberger to Principal. Sklar, a former J.P. Morgan entertainment investment banker, focuses on the firm’s content acquisition strategy. They have been with Shamrock respectively since 2015 and 2016. Landenberger was previously VP of corporate finance at MGM.

Shamrock Capital, with $1.9 billion of assets under management, was originally founded in 1978 as the family investment company for Roy E. Disney — the son of Roy O. Disney and nephew of Walt Disney. Its traditional private equity arm includes investments in Ad Results Media, Adweek, Appetize, Branded Cities, DeCurtis, FanDuel, Iyuno Media Group, Maple Media, Mobilitie, Omega Wireless, Pixellot and Wpromote. It closed a $700 million private equity fund in 2017.

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