Haim Saban’s Saban Capital Group announced Wednesday that it will dedicate $500 million to create a new global merchandising and licensing venture.
Saban Brands will look to acquire a broad range of properties that can be exploited in the global licensing and merchandising marketplace, drawing from a broad range of categories, including entertainment, fashion, lifestyle and celebrity.
Former Fox licensing and merchandising head Elie Dekel, who joined Saban Capital 11 months ago, has been put in charge of this new unit, called Saban Brands.
The new division will provide "full-service management, marketing, promotion and strategic business development for its intellectual properties including comprehensive strategies unique to each brand, trademark and copyright management and enforcement, creative design, retail development, direct-to-consumer initiatives and specialized Brand extensions."
"We are approaching the business from a different orientation," Dekel told TheWrap. "We intend to own and operate the brands that make up our portfolio, and leverage them across transmedia, across merchandise, across numerous other (realms). We will also be a licensor, and our partners could be in production, distribution or merchandising, or they could be into theme parks and anything inbetween."
Dekel said Saban Brands will be making its first intellectual property acquisition announcement in the coming weeks.
“The formation of Saban Brands enables us to utilize our extensive experience to create and grow compelling global properties that reach into every aspect of consumers’ lives through strategic and far-reaching licensing partnerships,” Saban said in a statement. “As media and consumer options become increasingly fragmented and proliferated, our underlying thesis is that properties that resonate with consumers today will only become more meaningful over time."
The Fox licensing and merchandising operation grew to a unit with $1.5 billion in annual sales under Dekel’s watch, thriving on properties including "The Simpsons," "Family Guy" and "Ice Age."
The announcement came as Saban is engaged in a court battle. The media mogul is accused by his former financial guru, Matt Krane, of having defrauded the government out of tax money when he sold Fox Family to Disney in October 2001.
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