Sonar Entertainment
| Public | |
| Traded as | OTC Pink: RHIEQ |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Genre | Media Company |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Founder | Robert Halmi, Sr. |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States |
Number of locations | New York City, Los Angeles, London and Sydney |
Key people |
Stewart Till (CEO) Jeffrey "Jeff" Sagansky (Chairman) Peter N. von Gal (COO) |
Number of employees | 78 (2008) |
| Website | http://www.sonarent.com/ |
Sonar Entertainment, Inc., formerly known as Quintex Entertainment, Hallmark Entertainment and RHI Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries. It was founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. (1924–2014) as RHI Entertainment (from Robert Halmi Incorporated).
Summary
Sonar also owns the library of the defunct Cabin Fever. Formed in 1987, Cabin Fever Entertainment was a subsidiary of UST Inc., parent of the U.S. Tobacco Company. In 1998, UST sold Cabin Fever to Hallmark Cards and was folded into Hallmark Home Entertainment, now Sonar Entertainment.
In 1986, the Halmis merged their company with Hal Roach Studios to form Qintex Entertainment, named after the Australian company that bought a share in the new venture. After Qintex's downfall, the company's assets were acquired by RHI Entertainment, with New Line Cinema and Chemical Banking Corporation acting as shareholders.[1] Hallmark Cards purchased RHI in 1994 and renamed it to Hallmark Entertainment. In 2006, the Halmis, along with affiliates of Kelso & Company, reacquired the company and revived the RHI name.[2]
In 2007, RHI began offering premieres of its films to digital cable customers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Cox Cable and Comcast, via the video on demand service. Also that year, RHI licensed a number of its new movies, miniseries and back catalog titles to global subscribers of Apple's iTunes service.
RHI has an extensive library that includes material from its Hallmark Entertainment and Qintex Entertainment predecessors, including most of the classic Hal Roach library (Topper, Laurel and Hardy, etc.), the Lonesome Dove television franchises, and the theatrical and home video rights to the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts released before MGM took over the series.
In June 2010, it was revealed that RHI might go bankrupt.[3] The company filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December of that year.[4] After emerging from bankruptcy in March 2011, Halmi, Jr. left the company.[5] Halmi, Sr. followed suit in February, 2012 and will form a new company. RHI's new management will now focus on "television series and other formats that have not traditionally been central to RHI’s business model."[6]
In March 2012, RHI was renamed Sonar Entertainment.[7]
As of June 2016, no quote or ticker symbol can be found for Sonar Entertainment, so it appears that the stock has been delisted and is no longer traded.
References
- ↑ Citron, Alan (6 June 1990). "Qintex Entertainment to Sell Virtually All of Its Assets".
- ↑ (12-08-2005). "Hallmark to Sell Film-Production Entity". Hallmark.com. Retrieved from the Wayback Machine on 03-24-2013.
- ↑ "Robert Halmi looks at bankruptcy". New York Post. 15 June 2010.
- ↑ "Halmi's RHI Entertainment files for Chapter 11". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ "Robert Halmi Jr Out At RHI; Robert Sr Staying Put With Long-Term Deal" Deadline.com (July 6, 2011).
- ↑ Andreeva, N. "Robert Halmi Sr. Exiting RHI Entertainment" Deadline.com (February 3, 2012)
- ↑ "RHI Renamed Sonar Entertainment With Stewart Till As CEO" Deadline.com (March 31, 2012)