Arri Owners Considering Selling Amid Challenging Cinema Landscape
German cinema company Arri is reportedly weighing its future and contemplating a potential sale.
This news, reported by Bloomberg, arrives just a week after Arri announced its new $55,000 Alexa 35 Xtreme cinema camera.
Bloomberg claims that Arri Group’s management and owners are “in initial talks with potential advisers” as they work on a deal to sell a stake in Arri. Sales, including both minority and majority stakes, are in consideration at this time.
Alongside considering a sale, Arri has been working with a consultancy group, AlixPartners, to “streamline its business,” according to sources who did not want to be identified.
Arri Group, founded in 1917 by August Arnold and Robert Richter, is a private company wholly owned by the Stahl family, heirs of Robert Richter. The Stahl family acquired 50% of Arri from the heirs of August Arnold more than a decade ago.
Bloomberg‘s sources indicate that the Stahl family has not committed to any particular sale plan, and it remains possible that there will be no sale made at all.
However, if Arri did sell, it would be a significant shakeup in the professional cinema industry, where Arri is particularly prominent at the extremely high end thanks to its cinema-grade cameras, lenses, and lighting equipment.
Despite its more than a century of success, Arri’s business has faced increasing challenges, thanks in large part to disruptions in the movie and television industries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and then the writer and actor strikes in the following years.
Production companies have been working on relatively fewer projects and spending less money, which harms Arri’s business across the board. In response, Arri has sold what Bloomberg describes as “non-core assets,” including lighting fixtures, to raise cash.
It is also worth considering that despite Arri’s strong reputation, it faces increasing competition from other cinema companies at relatively lower price tiers, both in the direct-purchase and rental markets. It is no longer the case that professional-grade image quality and optical performance are exclusive to camera kits that cost six figures.
This will be a fascinating situation to keep an eye on, as Arri is one of, if not the biggest name, in professional cinema cameras and lenses.
Image credits: Arri
