Parthenon, Entara Team for New Global Entertainment Business

LONDON, November 12: Private
investment and business management group Arkaga Fund has acquired Parthenon
Entertainment, who will partner with the entertainment rights company Entara to
create a new global entertainment business.

Entara was already part of
Arkaga Fund’s portfolio prior to the investor’s acquisition of Parthenon
Entertainment. Entara and Parthenon will provide a combined offering of program
production and distribution, as well as licensing. Parthenon Entertainment will
represent the program libraries of both companies worldwide. The combined group
will encompass family entertainment production and rights management, with
combined revenues of £8 million and a presence in the U.K., the U.S. and
Germany.

Carl Hall, the founder and
managing director of Parthenon Entertainment, will lead the new group as CEO.
Hall plans to expand the new business further into the factual entertainment
and children’s entertainment marketplace.

David Cardwell, the
chairman of Entara, will also become chairman of Parthenon Entertainment, while
Theresa Plummer-Andrews will remain as non-executive director of Entara and
will take on the position as non-executive director of Parthenon Entertainment.
Regis Brown, former executive VP at Entara, will join Parthenon Entertainment
as the president of Parthenon Kids and will oversee all Parthenon Kid’s
children’s properties as well as those previously handled by Entara. Brown will
also retain a seat on the board of Entara. Prior to joining Entara, he held
senior positions at Taffy Entertainment and Film Roman. Parthenon
Entertainment’s existing senior management will remain in place.

Hall founded Parthenon
Entertainment in 2002, initially as a distributor of wildlife programs. Since
then, the company has expanded to include the production and distribution of
factual programming. In 2006, Hall set up a stand-alone division, Parthenon
Kids, with a mission to develop children’s programs in-house, across animation
and live action and make investments in third-party properties.

Entara has a portfolio of
children’s brands which includes The Magic Roundabout, currently airing on Nick Jr. The company had
recently picked up the licensing rights in the U.K. to the series. Entara also
produces Those Scurvy Rascals,
an animated children’s television CGI series which has achieved strong ratings
on Nick Toons, and the BAFTA and multi-Emmy Award-winning Jakers! The
Adventures of Piggley Winks, which
airs on CBeebies. Entara is also
the third-party agent for Habbo,
an online community for teenagers which features more than 78 million Habbo characters created worldwide.

Hall commented: “I created
Parthenon Entertainment five years ago and have presided over the company’s
rapid organic growth. I am really proud of the team I have built, the
partnerships created and the market share the company has achieved. However it
is clear to me that if we want to achieve our ambitions and take the company to
the next stage we needed outside investment. With the backing of Arkaga Fund,
Parthenon Entertainment now has the resources to rapidly grow both the factual
and children’s IP businesses, both organically and by strategic acquisitions. I
am really excited to be at the helm of this exciting new venture.”

Cardwell added: ”Entara
and Parthenon complement one another perfectly and together with the support of
Arkaga Fund, we are confident that this deal will prove to be a huge success.
Our aim is to create a leading business within the family entertainment
industry and this agreement has set us on the path to achieving just that.”

—By Irene Lew