Disney Unloads Miramax for $650 Million

After a few suitors - the most recent a group involving Rob Lowe, which seems odd - Disney has reportedly decided to sell Miramax to construction executive Ronald Tutor and Colony Capital. The price, and here's the weird part, is estimated at $650 million. That seems like a lot of money, but it's the same ballpark Harvey Weinstein's group offered for the studio a couple months back, only to be not just rebuffed by the House of Mouse, but completely removed from the table. Disney has not confirmed the deal, but it's believed that might happen later this month. If the words "construction executive" give you pause, Tutor is not expected to be involved day-to-day. Instead, his role will be that of the managing partner and largest shareholder, while others, presumably movie or entertainment folk, will run the shop. But what will they do with it? That's the question asked by media financier Steve Blume. "The deal for me raises questions regarding the strategy on a going forward basis," he told Reuters. "Are they planning to gear up production and make more movies or simply monetize the library?" There's money in the library, but not enough to make it worth Tutor's time in the short term: How much can you really make on 15 - 20-year-old arthouse DVDs, which would be the specialty at this point? So Miramax almost certainly has to come back in some capacity as a content provider, but that's easier said than done. Most new companies trying that in past half-decade, many following the Weinsteins' blueprint, have failed spectacularly.