The SpringHill Company and Fulwell 73 have joined forces in a merger of equals with the aim of making the expanded company a bigger player in TV, film, live events, branded content and commercials and consumer products.
SpringHill, the manufacturing banner led by LeBron James and his longtime partner Maverick Carter, will come under the same roof as Fulwell 73, the company founded in Britain nearly 20 years ago by partners Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, James Corden , Ben Turner and Gabe Turner. The new company will have offices in Los Angeles, New York, London and Sunderland in the UK
Based in London, Carter and Pearlman will serve as co-CEOs. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
SpringHill has been busy with a wide variety of documentaries, sports-related, unscripted content and “The Shop,” the HBO series hosted by James and Carter, which stars celebrity friends in a barbershop to “speak honestly about sports , music and pop culture’. and more.” SpringHill is working on everything from a docuseries about USC women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins (“On the Rise: JuJu Watkins”) to NBC and Peacock’s “A Motown Christmas” holiday special. Netflix productions include the NBA docuseries “Starting 5” and scripted films “Rez Ball” and the Adam Sandler-starring “Hustle.” Last month, SpringHill signed a deal with France’s Mediawan to develop film and TV projects for the US and other markets.
Fulwell 73 is known for producing live events, including the recent Grammy Awards telecasts on CBS, the Los Angeles half of the Summer Olympics from Paris to Los Angeles in August and the Hulu reality series “The Kardashians.” It also produced the 2021 CBS concert special “Adele: One Night Only” and the 2022 Disney+ global livestream for Elton John’s farewell tour from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Documentary titles include “Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All” for Disney+ and the football docuseries “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” for Netflix. Fulwell also expects to soon break ground on the construction of a film and TV production facility in Sunderland, CrownWorks Studio.
Fulwell 73 partner Leo Pearlman, who will serve as co-CEO of the expanded firm alongside Maverick Carter
Getty Images
Winston and Carter confirmed this Variety in a joint interview that no money will change hands during the merger. But all shareholders of the as-yet unnamed new company have committed to contributing $40 million in new capital to fuel the expanded company’s growth initiatives. The list of investors includes those who have backed SpringHill since its founding in 2020: Fenway Sports Group, RedBird Capital Partners, UC Investments, Nike, Epic Games and Main Street Advisors.
Eldridge Industries, a business partner of Variety parent company PMC is the only external investor in Fulwell 73 and will remain with the new entity. SpringHill was valued at $725 million in 2021 when it received a capital injection from RedBird.
Fulwell 73 has been a prolific shop since arriving in the U.S. with Corden in 2015 to produce CBS’ “The Late Late Show.” But Winston, based in Los Angeles, recognized that for all its success, Fulwell 73 needed to be more diversified in its approach to developing, producing and distributing content.
“I didn’t want us to stand still and eventually just become a production company where you increasingly focus on services. We are producers for hire,” Winston said. “It’s very, very difficult and the bar has changed a lot for us in a streaming-dominated world.”
SpringHill’s success with its New York-based brand consultancy Robot impressed the Fulwell 73 partners. So did the company’s sophisticated approach and control of long-term rights to the company’s intellectual property. He points to “The Shop,” an unscripted series that James and Carter have been hosting and producing for HBO since 2018, and how that compares to Fulwell’s experience launching the buzzy “Carpool Karaoke” format as part of the “ CBS’ Late Late Show.
“I looked at SpringHill and the impact they have in the branding world. I looked at their advertising agency. I looked at Robot. And I also looked at the shows they’ve done, like ‘The Shop,’ which is a show that starts on Max and then goes to YouTube, where they control the rights,” Winston said. “They control the IP. Brands got involved in that show in a meaningful way, and now it’s made its way into a boatload of products you can buy at Walmart. If we had had that mentality back in the days of ‘Carpool Karaoke,’ it would have been a very, very different prospect for us.”
The deal creates a company that is active in unscripted content, documentaries, live events, scripted TV and film, branded content and commercials. Carter and Winston, who have been friends for a decade, first started talking about a potential deal about a year ago after a casual dinner. The two realized that their businesses had complementary strengths and that both would benefit from a more diversified revenue base.
Carter told Variety that he has admired Fulwell’s skill at executing large-scale live events, such as the concert specials, and at managing unscripted franchises such as “Carpool Karaoke.” Together, the leaders of both companies have the connections to thrive and earn top dollar for popular entertainment and media properties. Fulwell’s strength in the UK and Europe will be key to expanding “The Shop” format into new territories and languages.
“While the entertainment world is changing and evolving, the one thing that will never change no matter how it is distributed… what has always remained constant is that if you create great content with great talent and great stars, the viewers will want it” , Carter said. “We believe we now have the best capabilities to do that, and we have the best relationships with talent.”
SpringHill was represented in the deal by both Main Street Advisors and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Fulwell 73 was advised by London-based NewShore Partners and law firms Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz on US legal and tax matters, and Wiggin and Saffreys on UK matters.
(Pictured above: Ben Winston, Maverick Carter)