Reese Witherspoon has reacquired Hello Sunshine, the production company she founded in 2016, in partnership with Paris-based Mediawan. The deal was announced on October 13. Witherspoon purchased the company from Candle Media, the Blackstone-backed venture led by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, which had acquired Hello Sunshine in 2021 in a deal valued at $900 million. According to Axios, the buyback price was in the low to mid eight figures.
Approximately two weeks after the deal closed, about 30 employees were let go, roughly half the company's workforce. The cuts primarily targeted Hello Sunshine's direct-to-consumer division, which had expanded under Candle Media to include physical products, lifestyle brands, and The Home Edit. A Gen Z parenting brand called Sunnie, launched in 2025, is among the operations being wound down. Hello Sunshine and Mediawan declined to comment on the layoffs.
The restructured company will concentrate on film and television development and production, Reese's Book Club, and related marketing partnerships. In a joint statement, Witherspoon called Mediawan "the perfect home for this new media landscape" and described the deal as a homecoming.
The company built its reputation on prestige television with a distinct voice: Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere, Daisy Jones & the Six, and The Morning Show. Under Candle Media, it went through at least four rounds of layoffs and shut its kids and animation unit in 2023.
Mediawan has been assembling a portfolio of English-language companies, having previously acquired Plan B Entertainment, Chernin Entertainment, and See Saw Films. Industry sources suggest Candle Media's exit leaves it with a significant loss on the original investment. The boom-era production company valuations that defined the early 2020s continue to correct.
