Candle Media’s Kevin Mayer Says He’ll Continue to Work With Will Smith, Teases Reese Witherspoon Children’s IP

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman Kevin Mayer, co-CEO of Blackstone Group-backed Candle Media, discussed the company’s 360 IP-investment strategy at the MipTV conference in Cannes on Monday morning.Mayer was appearing alongside Moonbug Entertainment co-founder René Rechtman on a panel moderated by Variety international editor Manori Ravindran.

Candle Media purchased children-focused brand Moonbug last year for $3 billion.They previously bought Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine for $900 million and also own a stake in Will Smith’s production and multimedia company Westbrook, which produces, among other things, Jada Pinkett Smith’s popular Red Table Talk show on Facebook.Former Disney exec Mayer described these as Candle Media’s “anchor” companies under which other acquisitions will be housed, pointing to Moonbug’s recent acquisition of the Little Angel YouTube franchise and Hello Sunshine’s acquisition of The Home Edit, a home organization brand first promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow that has spawned a Netflix show, books, magazines and merchandise.

Rechtman added that Moonbug in particular has a “strong pipeline of potential IPs we want to acquire,” and was particularly looking at the gaming space as the next frontier in terms of what kids are interested in, explaining: “We have to follow the eyeballs.”Mayer also explained how Candle Media is focused on acquiring companies that have “synergy,” giving an example of Witherspoon partnering with Rechtman on a children’s series. “Reese Witherspoon has a fantastic idea for a new kids brand and she’s writing a book about it and she was going to make an animated series behind it,” said Mayer. (Last month Witherspoon announced she had written her first children’s book, “Busy Betty,” inspired by her own.