m4e and Planeta Junior join forces in a strategic alliance m4e - January 2016

 
Spanish-Italian Planeta Junior and German m4e sign a longterm co-production, distribution and consumer products partnership.

The German brand management and media company m4e AG and Spanish‐Italian Planeta Junior S.L. (a joint venture between DeAgostini, Italy and Grupo Planeta, Spain), two leading European family entertainment companies, will form a longterm co‐production, distribution as well as licensing & merchandising partnership. As part of this powerful strategic alliance, several rights from Planeta Junior’s IPs and some of m4e’s new developments will thus be jointly co‐produced. Both parties will furthermore distribute each other’s audio visual rights catalogue. Planeta Junior will be focusing mainly on France and Southern Europe while m4e will be covering Central & Northern Europe, Asia‐Pacific, Latin America, North America, Africa and the Middle East. Eastern Europe will be handled jointly by both companies.

With the aim of building a leading worldwide business, m4e and Planeta Junior are about to combine their several teams to a strong international network. The new venture will be able to offer a broad distribution and presence via own offices in eight European countries including Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Poland and Benelux. An expansion into other major territories is planned in the medium term.

In order to continually strengthen their property portfolios, both partners will jointly acquire rights and make their services available to third party rights owners. For a common market appearance, Planeta Junior and m4e are currently developing a joint branding, which will be announced shortly.

“This strategic collaboration represents a major step for the m4e group in terms of deep distribution, managing our rights and consumer products business in Europe as well as financing aspects for our production slate. We share the same vision and due to our strong teams the new venture offers a huge opportunity to better control our rights portfolio and revenue streams. Right from the beginning of the discussions we felt that Planeta Junior is the natural fit for such a partnership.” says Hans Ulrich Stoef, CEO of the m4e group.

“This alliance is a perfect match for both companies since m4e and Planeta Junior share the same concept of the entertainment business and we are naturally complementary in reaching the European marketplace through our local teams. This joint venture establishes the ideal framework for our creative teams to develop new and exciting properties”, adds Ignacio Segura de Lassaletta, Planeta Junior General Manager.