Lionsgate to spin out film and TV studio

Lionsgate's decision to spin out its studio business into a separate company sets up its sprawling film and TV assets to be eventually sold.

Why it matters: Lionsgate eventually selling its studio has been one of Hollywood's longest-standing predictions.

Driving the news: Lionsgate finally detailed yesterday how it plans to separate Starz from its studio business, which has been a nearly two-year odyssey.

• In a Form 10 filing with the SEC, Lionsgate said it would spin out its film and TV studio into a separately traded company while the Starz business will remain under Lionsgate.
• "We remain excited by the prospect of separating Lionsgate and Starz into standalone companies with strong financial foundations that will allow each company to pursue its own distinct strategy," CEO Jon Feltheimer said in a statement.
• The timing of the separation is still to be determined and still needs board and shareholder approval.

Catch up quick: Lionsgate at first wanted to offload Starz, which it bought for $4.4 billion in 2016 but has since seen the company's value drop amid the erosion of the cable TV business.

• The combined company is currently valued at under $2 billion.
• During its sale process for Starz, Lionsgate executives said that they had found a number of interested parties in its studio business, though no deal had materialized.
• "There seems to be a group of investors that really like the streaming side and the platform side. And there's another that understand the immense value that we have, really, after the MGM sale to Amazon," Feltheimer said last year.