London media investment firm Galleon Holdings is buying a 19 percent stake in its U.S. partner firm, Atlanta-based multimedia entertainment producer Dragonfruit Studios, in a deal worth over $1 million.
The deal sees Galleon pay $500,000 (which Dragonfruit will use as working capital) and give over Galleon shares worth the same amount. But Galleon will also hand back its existing 19 percent stake in a Dragonfruit subsidiary, Dragonfruit Entertainment. That makes this essentially a financing deal for Dragonfruit, it looks like.
Dragonfruit was founded by Michael Koziol and Melissa Honabach in 1999 and sold to Canada’s Nurun five years later. It produces content including teen web travel documentary Wayfinder.tv, reality show Super Fashion Stars and Super Star Soccer, an international reality show aiming to recruit a teenager for Chelsea soccer club. It also already has a license to localise Sokator-442, a Chinese soccer management game, on behalf of Galleon. These last three are all Galleon properties.
Galleon CEO Stephen Green, in the release: