Rhythm & Hues deal finalised

Prana Studio based in Mumbai and Los Angeles has acquired VFX company Rhythm & Hueson March 28th 2013 in $17.8 million. Lee Berger , the president of Rhythm & Hues  said that the plan is to maintain the company bases in USA, Canada,India and Taiwan. They are unclear about the operations in Malaysia because of different ownership shtructure.

Rhythm & Hues has been officially acquired by the affiliate company of Prana Studios. Prana Studio is often called as American firm but according to story it is a VFX studio with facilities in Mumbai and Los Angeles. Prana Studio was founded  in 2003 by Arish Fayzee, Pankaj  Gunasagar and Kristi Dornig. They were backed by Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries and NAren Gupta of Nexus Capital. Currently Rhythm & Hues is acquired by 34 x 118 Holdings which is affiliate company of Prana .

Allan Soong is appointed as chief restructuring officer . Lee Berger is president, Erika Burton will serve as vice president and Gautham Krishnamoorthy will be CTO of the company. Jeff Okun is a senior VP of vfx for Prana

Prime Focus World, which had also made a bid to acquire R&H, and is listed as a co-debtor in the bankruptcy proceedings, sent out a congratulatory release this afternoon, saying in part: “Prime Focus is disappointed that we did not prevail in the sale process for R&H, we wanted to take a moment to focus on the positive aspects for our industry’s most valuable asset – people. … We look forward to future opportunities with Rhythm & Hues and their team and wish them the greatest of successes in the future.”

Later today Prime Focus released a congratulatory note stating that they were disappointed as they did not prevail in the sale process of R&H. They wished them greatest success in the coming future.