Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Cuts 50% of Staff After She Buys Back Company

Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine laid off approximately 50% of its staff Friday after the founder and media partner Mediawan bought back the company for a fraction of its valuation. The company will now focus primarily on film and television projects and the Reese’s Book Club brand after reportedly cutting the direct-to-consumer team completely. The remaining team includes employees across film and television, the book club, social and digital marketing and partnerships. The layoffs account for roughly 30 employees. Hello Sunshine declined to comment to TheWrap. The “Legally Blonde” star teamed up with French media conglomerate Mediawan to buy her company back for “low to mid eight figures” Oct. 13, according to a person familiar with the terms of the transaction. A generous estimate would peg that at around $50 million. Blackstone-backed Candle Media bought the company for a $900 million valuation in 2021. At even $50 million, Witherspoon’s buy-back deal would represent a 94% drop from the original valuation. “We were just wrong,” said an individual close to Candle Media. “This isn’t a great deal in comparison to what we paid. It’s not a great outcome for Blackstone.” Witherspoon launched Reese’s Book Club, a community of more than 6.2 million book fan members, in 2017. The book community has evolved into a TV and film development hub. The layoffs reflect the sentiment that the founder was less interested in scaling the business in direct-to-consumer pushes, influencing fans to buy content and products she recommended. Hello Sunshine is now just one of the production companies under Mediawan’s umbrella. Other production companies included in Mediawan’s nearly 100 labels are See-Saw Films, Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap International, Misfits Entertainment, Palomar and Our Films. Together, those various studios produce more than 450 titles each year, with notable credits including “F1,” “Adolescence,” “Slow Horses,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Miraculous,” and “Call My Agent!” Prominent titles produced by Hello Sunshine include Prime Video’s “Elle,” Apple TV’s “Lucky,” “The Morning Show” and HBO’s “Big Little Lies.” Hello Sunshine was founded in 2016 with backing from Chernin and Jesse Jacobs through The Chernin Group.