The Company

Cinedigm, Inc., Los Angeles, CA: a former MidMark Capital portfolio company.

Digital distribution of motion pictures.

CEO Bud Mayo’s new venture was at a crossroads. The company’s main business, data centers, had fallen on hard times after the dotcom bubble burst. The board considered venturing into vertical markets, and the company chose movies, based on Bud’s relationships. Studios stood to save billions in a transition to digital, but exhibitors could not afford to purchase entirely new projection equipment. The transition to digital was stuck.

At our urging, and in conjunction with projector manufacturer Christy, Cinedigm contractualized the first “digital print fee,” and used the resulting cash flows to purchase digital projectors and lease them to theater owners for a nominal amount.

Over the next eight years, Cinedigm would install more than 12,000 digital projectors worth almost a billion dollars, heralding the end of the age of celluloid. Today, the distribution of motion pictures has never been so efficient and cost-effective, where exhbitors can show any kind of alternative content, and studios can track film inventory real-time and maximize revenue opportunities across geographies and markets.