{"id":2177739,"date":"2025-11-26T14:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2177739"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:38:16","slug":"blue-ant-media-acquire-thunderbird-entertainment-63-million-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/blue-ant-media-acquire-thunderbird-entertainment-63-million-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Ant Media Acquire Thunderbird Entertainment $63 Million Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tIndie studio\u00a0Blue Ant Media<\/a> has unveiled a deal to acquire Vancouver-based rival Thunderbird Entertainment Group as part of an CAN$89 million (US$63 million) cash and stock deal. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThunderbird backs multiple projects filming in Vancouver for U.S. studios and streamers produced on a production fee-for-hire basis, while also making its own proprietary content. The company\u2019s Atomic Cartoons division has been at work on Marvel\u2019s Iron Man and his Awesome Friends<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Marvel\u2019s Spidey and His Amazing Friends\u00a0<\/em>for Disney Junior, and\u00a0Dr. Seuss\u2019s Red Fish, Blue Fish<\/em>\u00a0for Netflix<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe proposed takeover deal shakes up a Vancouver film and TV production sector where major studios and streamers are attracted by generous tax credits, currency savings and an expanding network of local soundstages and post-production facilities close to Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

\n\tThunderbird\u2019s unscripted pipeline includes series\u00a0like Timber Titans<\/em> and Highway Thru Hell<\/em> for USA Network<\/a>. On the scripted side, Thunderbird is producing How to Lose a Popularity Contest<\/em>\u00a0for Tubi and\u00a0Crew Girl<\/em>\u00a0for Netflix.<\/p>\n

\n\tAtomic Cartoons specializes in animation, and Great Pacific Media has a focus on scripted and unscripted fare. \u201cThunderbird is a strong strategic fit and highly complementary to Blue Ant\u2019s existing operations. Combining our businesses will add scale, create meaningful cost synergies, strengthen our earnings and cash flow profile and enhance our presence in the capital markets,\u201d Michael MacMillan, Blue Ant\u2019s CEO who recently took the media company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, told analysts during a morning conference call on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo other bids for Thunderbird were received as Blue Ant negotiated directly with the Vancouver-based target company to hammer out the takeover deal, MacMillan added. Pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, the takeover transaction is expected to close in early 2026. <\/p>\n

\n\tCurrent Thunderbird CEO Jennifer Twiner McCarron will join Blue Ant and oversee a combined kids, young adult and animation business under the Blue Ant Studios umbrella. MacMillan forecast annual cost synergies of CAN$7 million (US$5 million) to emerge from the takeover deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThunderbird shareholders will receive $1.77 per-company share, either in cash or Blue Ant stock. Twiner McCarron on the analyst call argued combining the two companies \u201ccreates a stronger, more resilient and dynamic media company, poised to compete in an evolving industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike other Canadian indie producers with ties to the U.S. market, Thunderbird, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, has worked to increase the amount of projects it does where it holds the IP, against production services work for which it has no ownership. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat Thunderbird IP will be folded into Blue Ant Studios as it looks to ramp up its own content production to feed into its Canadian and international broadcast and streaming platforms. Blue Ant in Oct. 2025 unveiled a deal to acquire MagellanTV, a global factual streaming service. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe sale of Thunderbird follows a late 2022 proxy fight <\/a>with activist investor Voss Capital, which urged the sale of the Canadian producer to boost shareholder value. That led to Voss Capital analyst Taylor Henderson joining the Thunderbird boardroom, which has backed the deal with Blue Ant. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hollywoodreporter.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie studio\u00a0Blue Ant Media has unveiled a deal to acquire Vancouver-based rival Thunderbird Entertainment Group as part of an CAN$89 million (US$63 million) cash and stock deal. \u00a0 Thunderbird backs multiple projects filming in Vancouver for U.S. studios and streamers produced on a production fee-for-hire basis, while also making its own proprietary content. The company\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2177740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[419270,23191,111946],"class_list":["post-2177739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-blue-ant-media","tag-netflix","tag-usa-network"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Blue-Ant-Media-Acquire-Thunderbird-Entertainment-63-Million-Deal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177741,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177739\/revisions\/2177741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}