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Entertainment One

Entertainment One Ltd.
Formerly called
Records On Wheels Limited (1970–1980)
ROW Entertainment (1980–2005)
Entertainment One Income Fund (2005–2009)
E1 Entertainment (2009–2010)
Public
Traded as
Industry Conglomerate
Predecessor Koch Entertainment
Alliance Films
Alliance Atlantis
Founded 1973 as Records on Wheels
Founder Darren Throop
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people
Allan Leighton
(Non-Executive Director & Chairman)
Darren Throop
(CEO)
Products Music
Film
Television
Distribution
Music Publishing
Revenue £802.7 million (2016)
£47.9 million (2016)
£40.2 million (2016)
Owner CPP Investment Board
(19.70%)
Capital Research & Management
(10.59%)
M&G Investment Management
(7.00%)
Standard Life Investments
(6.34%)
(remaining 56.37% publicly-traded)
Divisions
Subsidiaries
Website entertainmentone.com

Entertainment One (also simply known as eOne, stylized as entertainment One) is a Canadian multinational media distribution company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of entertainment content, including films, television series, and music. It is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Founded in 1973 as the music distributor Records on Wheels, by 2003 the company had begun to expand into home entertainment distribution, and international film and television acquisition and production through the acquisition of Alliance Films, along with other distributors and studios.

eOne began operations in 1973 in Ontario, Canada, as Records on Wheels (ROW) Limited, founded and operated by Vito Ierullo and Don Ierullo, focusing on retail sales of recorded music. In the late 1970s, ROW began to distribute recorded music for third-party retailers in Canada. For more than 20 years, entertainment content distribution became the company’s primary focus as the company expanded into video, purchasing one of Canada’s largest home entertainment distributors, Video One Canada, Ltd., from its then-parent, Standard Broadcasting Corporation. In November 2003, the company was listed on the as ROW Entertainment Income Fund.

In June 2005, ROW Entertainment Income Fund acquired the American independent music distributor and home entertainment publisher Koch Entertainment. In 2007, the company, now known as the Entertainment One Income Fund, accepted a $188 million public equity takeover by Marwyn Investment Management to fund its expansion; the company was listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market as Entertainment One Ltd.

In 2007, Entertainment One acquired Montreal-based film distributor Seville Pictures and UK distributor Contender Entertainment. The same year, the company secured its first film output agreement with Summit Entertainment, handling distribution in Canada and the United Kingdom. Acquisitions continued in 2008 with the purchase of the Benelux distributor RCV Entertainment. The same year, eOne acquired the television studios Blueprint and Barna-Alper, and international television distributor Oasis International.

On May 28, 2012, eOne placed a bid to purchase the Canadian film distributor Alliance Films from Goldman Sachs Group and Investissement Quebec. The deal was completed on January 9, 2013, giving eOne Canadian distribution rights for titles from Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Lionsgate Films and Focus Features. Also that same year, eOne had its first appearance on the LSE's FTSE 250, as well as completing an exclusive multi-year distribution agreement with AMC and SundanceTV to handle international distribution for all original scripted series.


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