The Canadian entertainment company behind the Family Channel and well-known children’s TV shows like Caillou has acquired Vancouver-based animation studio Nerd Corps in a deal worth up to $57 million.
DHX Media (TSX:DHX.A) said the acquisition of the West Coast studio is expected to close by Christmas Eve.
The deal, which as announced December 2, will be financed through $32.7 million in cash as well as 2.9 million shares in DHX.
Nerd Corps, which has produced series such as Storm Hawks and Slugterra, has a workforce of about 400 employees and has created about 100 hours worth of children’s programming since its founding in 2002.
Halifax-based DHX is retaining Nerd Corps co-founder and CEO Ace Fipke. He will transition into the role of chief content officer for kids and family programming with the DHX Content division.
Meanwhile, Nerd Corps president Ken Faier will take on the position of senior vice-president and general manager of kids and family programming at DHX Content.
Fairer will remain based out of Toronto but will move into DHX's headquarters. Fipke is staying put in Vancouver.
The Nerd Corps co-founder said he wasn’t necessarily looking to sell the company when he was approached by DHX.
“We have grown and been very strategic in being a content creator over the last 12 years of our business,” Fipke said.
“But at some point, I guess in the business, you realize some scale and support by an entity like DHX, which we fit so perfectly into, made a lot of sense for us.”
DHX president and chief operating officer Steven DeNure said he’s known Fipke for about two decades and has long admired Nerd Corps' work.
“We’ve know that this would be a really good fit for what we’re doing with our business,” he said.
Denure added he expects the new division to expand operations following the acquisition.
