Entertainment One

Entertainment One (commonly abbreviated as eOne) is a Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series.

The company originated as the Canadian music distributor Records on Wheels Limited; after it was acquired by music retailer CD Plus, the company became ROW Entertainment, with its vice president of operations Darren Throop becoming president and CEO. It later acquired U.S. music and home entertainment distributor Koch Entertainment.

By 2007, the company—now known as Entertainment One—had begun to acquire other production companies and film distributors, including Canadian distributors Les Films Séville and Alliance Films. By 2015, eOne had begun to expand its U.S. operations, including investing in Amblin Partners, and acquiring a stake in The Mark Gordon Company. In 2019, eOne announced its sale to U.S. toy and entertainment company Hasbro for US$4 billion.

The company began to face cutbacks under Hasbro, which sold eOne's original music distribution business (now MNRK Music Group) to Blackstone in 2021, and closed its theatrical distribution operations in Australia, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom in 2022 and 2023, ahead of a planned sale of entertainment assets not strongly tied to eOne's children's entertainment brands (such as ''Peppa Pig'', which would be folded into Hasbro's intellectual property and merchandising business following the acquisition). In August 2023, Hasbro announced that it would sell the assets to Lionsgate for $500 million. The deal closed on December 27, 2023, with eOne being split into three companies, eOne Canada for producing films and television series within Canada, Lionsgate Alternative Television for shows outside Canada, and eOne Films for films outside Canada. Provided by Wikipedia