Vestron Video
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Vestron Video was a company based in Stamford, CT that was active from the early 1980s to mid-1990s. The company was responsible for releases on VHS videocassette of mostly B-movies, and films from Cannon Films' library. In later years, the company began to shift towards mainstream films, including films released through their Vestron Pictures subsidiary, most notably Dirty Dancing. In addition, the company was the first company to release National Geographic videos in the late 1980s.
Some time in the 1990s Artisan Entertainment (now a part of Lions Gate Entertainment) acquired Vestron's extensive film library.
Vestron went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1985 with what was at the time a large market cap IPO of $440MM, which was oversubscribed. The company enjoyed success for several years, at one point exceeding 10% of the US video movie market. At it's high point sales approximated $350MM annually, and the company sold video movies in over 30 countries either directly or through sub licensing agreements. This was basically a rights business, built by some insightful people who appreciated the video (VCR) rights to films before the major studios did. Eventually the major studios smartened up, and film product became increasingly harder for Vestron to acquire.
The company attempted to make its own films (Dirty Dancing, Earth Girls Are Easy, Blue Steel) but this proved not to be a viable course and the company eventually filed for bankruptcy.
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