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WME-IMG Buys Majority Stake in Film Sales-Finance Company Bloom

WME-IMG has acquired a majority stake in the film finance and sales company Bloom, headed by Ken Kao and Alex Walton.

Bloom will continue to operate and remain focused on sales, finance, and production. The news comes a week before the opening of the Toronto International Film Festival, where several Bloom titles are premiering, including George Clooney’s “Suburbicon” and Scott Cooper’s “Hostiles,” which stars Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike.

Bloom is also handling Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s “Woodshock,” starring Kirsten Dunst, which A24 will release after its Venice premiere. Bloom’s other projects include “The Nice Guys,” starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe; Danny Strong’s “Rebel in the Rye,” Mel Gibson-Vince Vaughn crime drama “Dragged Across Concrete”; “Book Club,” starring Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, and Candice Bergen; Jared Leto’s “The Outsiders”; and “Bel Canto” with Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe.

Earlier this summer, WME-IMG received a $1.1 billion cash infusion in an investment led by The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Government of Singapore Investment Fund, which joined Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm that owns a significant stake in the agency.

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The deal is an outgrowth of the working relationship between Bloom and WME partners Graham Taylor and Chris Rice, who oversee the agency’s finance/sales business.

“WME has been a trusted collaborator for me since I began in the business, and I am really delighted that they feel the confidence in what we have achieved at Bloom to now join us in helping build Bloom towards our next phase of evolution through increased content ownership and production,” Kao said in a statement.

The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

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