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March 30

HBO sale of Tri-Star Pictures

The article on TriStar Pictures says that when HBO left the venture it sold half of its share to Columbia Pictures. Who did HBO sell the other half of its share to? The article doesn't say. RudolfRed (talk) 01:39, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that is just poor wording. TriStar was "Tri" because it had three owners: Columbia, CBS, and HBO. First, CBS sold its shares to Columbia. Leaving the shares split between Columbia and HBO. Then, HBO sold it's half to Columbia. I believe it should be worded "HBO sold it's shares to Columbia" and avoid the word "half." If you look at many other sources on the Internet, they state that HBO sold out. Everything they owned in TriStar went to Columbia. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 14:25, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I concur with the above. I think what the text is trying to say is not "HBO sold half of its shares", but rather "HBO sold its half of the shares". --Jayron 32 16:32, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense. Thanks for the replies. RudolfRed (talk) 19:14, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@RudolfRed, 97.82.165.112, and Jayron32: this would make sense if we were just going by that text. But as always, all text in Wikipedia should be referenced. This particular text was referenced to the book A New Pot of Gold by Stephen Prince which is helpfully available via archive.org's controversy digitalisation project [1].

The part that is of relevance says "In Response, CBS sold its shares in the company to Columbia in 1985, and the next year, Time, Inc., sold Columbia half of its interest in Tri-Star."

The Time, Inc. part must be referring to HBO since from what I read in HBO, Time, Inc was probably the ultimate owner of HBO then, so it's perhaps reasonable so simplify. But I find it hard to believe this can be interpreted to be a poorly worded sentence where the intention was to say they sold its half interest in Tri-Star.

I would also note that as User:Tamfang pointed out, this only works out if HBO had a half-interest which is unclear. Assuming that it was a 1/3 split than HBO still only had 1/3. Columbia had 2/3 after CBS pulled out. According to the source, HBO did contribute effectively contribute more so it's possible that they had half at the beginning, but I'm not to sure.

If the IP found a reliable secondary source among these "many other sources", they're welcome to replace or supplement our existing source but until then we shouldn't mislead readers into thinking sources say something they clearly don't.

It's not impossible that HBO/Time simply maintained half of their shares (or probably 1/6) for a while while pulling out of their partnership for whatever reason such as Columbia being unwilling or unable to offer a price they found fair or simply wanting to maintain shares because they still thought the studio could be successful even if they weren't willing to invest more or be bound by the partnership requirements. I assume that the original partnership documents and/or lawyers+executives would help negotiate and such pull out where HBO/Time wanted to maintain shares while not being part of the partnership.

Nil Einne (talk) 00:33, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Looking into this more, our source doesn't actually say HBO pulled out AFAICT. This obviously happened but clearly we need better source to explain precisely what happened. I see some non RS mention HBO pulling out in 1987 while our article and some others say 1986. Perhaps what really happened in in 1986, HBO began to pull out selling half their shares and maybe reducing their commitments. Then in 1987 they completely pulled out, selling their remaining shares and probably ending any commitments. HBO also had HBO Pictures which they may have wanted to put more effort into which may have conflicted with their TriStar commitments, and Coca Cola was also reorganising their business in 1987. (Some non RS seem to suggest HBO only started HBO Pictures after pulling out of TriStar but this doesn't seem to be correct demonstrating the risk of relying on non RS.) Nil Einne (talk) 01:05, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Did it begin with HBO 1/2, CBS 1/4, Columbia 1/4? —Tamfang (talk) 02:01, 2 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]