The Tornante Company, LLC is an American privately held investment firm founded in 2005 and owned by former Paramount Pictures and

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

CEO

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...

. Tornante invests in, acquires, and operates media and entertainment companies. When Eisner was bicycling around Italy, he saw a signpost that inspired the name Tornante for his company. Tornante means "hairpin turn" in Italian.

History

The Tornante Company was founded by

in 2005, after he left

. In 2006, Tornante formed

Vuguru Vuguru is an American independent multi-platform studio founded by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company in March 2006. The company has produced content including the web series ''Prom Queen'', '' The Booth at the End'', ''Little Women Big Cars'', ...

production company with backing from Rogers Media of Canada. The company made a $12.5 million venture funding round investment in

Veoh Veoh () is an American video-sharing website, launched in March 2006. It was originally launched as a virtual television network application, and then became a video-sharing website in March 2006. During the mid-2000s, it was one of the largest ...

in April 2006. Tornante purchased Team Baby Entertainment, a maker of infants and toddlers sports-related DVDs in June 2006. On March 5, 2007, the company and

Madison Dearborn Partners Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; ba ...

purchased Topps for $385 million. Tornante planned to have Team Baby merge with Topps. In June 2015, Tornante Co. formed Tornante-Sinclair LLC, a TV production company, with Sinclair TV Group. Eisner's company signed in November 2015 a worldwide distribution deal with

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

to release the firm's self-funded slate of films. In August 2017, Tornante closed on the purchase of the

Portsmouth Football Club Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...

for an undisclosed deal; however, BBC reported that Eisner had offered £5.67 million "and will invest an extra £10m."

Holdings

Current investment holdings of the firm include: * AirTime * Clique Media (now Clique Brands) *Metaverse * Omaze *

*Rad *Spark Neuro * TaskRabbit * The

Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, a ...

Company, Inc. (50%) trade card and candy company owned with

since March 2007 * Tornante-Sinclair LLC (50%) a joint venture TV production company with Sinclair TV Group for court shows, comedy programs, game shows and talk shows in first-run syndicated * Tornante Television, Los Angeles based subsidiary overseeing Tornante-Sinclair via Tornante co-president, Lauren Corrao. The unit also produces the adult animated comedies '' BoJack Horseman'' and ''

Tuca & Bertie ''Tuca & Bertie'' is an American animated sitcom created by cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt for Netflix. It began streaming on May 3, 2019. It stars Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong, with a supporting cast including Steven Yeun, John Early, Richard E. Gra ...

'', and in conjunction with

Trifecta Entertainment and Media Trifecta Entertainment & Media is an American entertainment company founded in 2006. The company's founders previously held jobs as executives at MGM Television. Trifecta is primarily a distribution company and also handles advertising sales in exc ...

the syndicated court reality show '' Judge Faith''. *

(2006–) production company with backing from Rogers Media of Canada Former holdings of the firm include: * Team Baby Entertainment (June 2006) a maker of infants and toddlers sports-related DVDs, which merged with Topps *

(stake) April 2006–April 7, 2010

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tornante Company

The Tornante Company The Tornante Company, LLC is an American privately held investment firm founded in 2005 and owned by former Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner. Tornante invests in, acquires, and operates media and entertainmen ...

Investment companies of the United States Holding companies of the United States Private equity firms of the United States Holding companies established in 2005 Michael Eisner