Yahoo News Just for Laughs Comedy Festival Parent Company to File for Bankruptcy Protection
The parent company of Montreal’s Just For Laughs comedy festival, Groupe Juste Pour Rire Inc., is set to file for bankruptcy protection.
“JPR’s board of directors, after having extensively considered all available alternatives, came to the conclusion that the financial situation of the organization left no other choice than to initiate formal restructuring proceedings,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Groupe Juste Pour Rire filed a notice of intention to make a proposal under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
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In 2018, ICM Partners and longtime client Howie Mandel joined a consortium that included local Quebec investors to acquire the Just For Laughs comedy group by picking up the controlling stake of JFL founder Gilbert Rozon.
CAA is understood to retain a small stake in Just For Laughs after acquiring ICM in 2022, and Mandel is no longer part of the festival’s ownership consortium.
“This process will allow JPR to seek investors or strategic purchasers for all or part of its business, with the goal of maximizing value for stakeholders and hopefully preserving going concern operations as much as possible,” Groupe Juste Pour Rire added about its bankruptcy protection measures.
Without discussing possible job cuts as part of the expected cost-cutting measures, the parent company said it will continue to operate in “a scaled-down format, throughout the restructuring process.” In addition, the 2024 edition of the Just for Laughs festival, which includes a wide contingent of New York and Los Angeles talent scouts attending, has been canceled.
“Once the restructuring is completed, we hope that the festival will take place in 2025,” the company said. Just For Laughs looks to have become a victim of cost-cutting across the media industry, especially in Hollywood, and inflationary cost pressures impacting the Canadian company.
“In parallel, the media industry landscape has radically changed over the past few years. Consolidation and reduced budgets at the networks and streaming platforms have made television production more challenging,” the company said.
The Montreal-based comedy group got its start in the 1980s as an annual festival where Los Angeles and New York talent scouts discovered the Next Big Thing for Hollywood sitcoms and movie roles. But the rise of the internet and social media as discovery platforms for self-promoting comedians has pushed JFL festival down the assembly line for nascent comedy talent.
That in turn led the Canadian comedy group in recent years to target an increasingly global business online, thanks to the digital age. That included diversifying into more one-person shows at the annual festival, TV and digital exploitation of its comedy brand and launching JFL-branded comedy festivals in Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney.
“The purpose of the restructuring is to allow the business to emerge stronger and healthier, and successfully position the festival and the other JPR properties for the long term to preserve the rich 40-year legacy of Just for Laughs / Juste pour rire,” the comedy festival added, “ensuring it is better equipped to meet the challenges of an ever-changing entertainment landscape.”
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