Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Cuts Half Its Staff Weeks After She Bought It Back
About 30 employees - roughly 50 percent - were laid off Friday as the company refocuses on film, television and Reese's Book Club, weeks after a buyback at a small fraction of its $900 million 2021 valuation.
Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine laid off approximately half its staff on Friday, TheWrap reported - roughly 30 employees - weeks after Witherspoon and French media conglomerate Mediawan bought the company back from Candle Media. The company will now focus primarily on film and television projects and the Reese's Book Club brand, reportedly eliminating its direct-to-consumer team entirely. The remaining staff work across film and television, the book club, social and digital marketing and partnerships. Hello Sunshine declined to comment.
The arithmetic behind the cuts is the story's hard edge. Blackstone-backed Candle Media acquired Hello Sunshine at a $900 million valuation in 2021. Witherspoon and Mediawan bought it back on October 13 for what a person familiar with the terms described as 'low to mid eight figures' - roughly $50 million at the high end of that range, a decline of about 94 percent from the 2021 price. 'We were just wrong,' an individual close to Candle Media told TheWrap. 'This isn't a great deal in comparison to what we paid. It's not a great outcome for Blackstone.'
What survives the restructuring is the part of the company audiences can name. Reese's Book Club, launched in 2017, counts more than 6.2 million members and has become a pipeline for film and television projects; Hello Sunshine's titles include 'The Morning Show' and 'Big Little Lies' for HBO and Apple TV, and the upcoming 'Elle' and 'Lucky.' The layoffs reflect a shift away from direct-to-consumer efforts aimed at turning fans into customers for products - the new Hello Sunshine is a production company and a book club, and Friday's cuts sized the staff to exactly that.
