in jerusalem see lions gate . for other uses see lions gate disambiguation . lions gate entertainment corporation logo used since 2005 trading name lions gate entertainment inc. lionsgate type public traded as nyse lgf industry entertainment predecessor berringer gold corp founded july 3 1997 ; 19 years ago 1997 07 03 in vancouver british columbia canada founder frank giustra headquarters santa monica california united states area served north america united kingdom france australasia india key people mark rachesky chairman jon feltheimer ceo michael burns vice chairman services film production video on demand entertainment broadcast programming digital distribution revenue us 2.4 b 1 2015 operating income us 222.2 m 1 2015 net income us 181.8 m 1 2015 total assets us 3.292 b 1 2015 total equity us 842m 1 2015 number of employees 719 2 2015 divisions lionsgate films lionsgate premiere lionsgate television lionsgate home entertainment lionsgate music & publishing lionsgate interactive subsidiaries debmar mercury summit entertainment primal media 3 joint ventures celestial tiger entertainment codeblack films studio 3 partners 31 % pantelion films 49 % roadside attractions 45 % sea to sky entertainment pop 50 % defy media 31 % 4 5 website lionsgate.com lions gate entertainment corporation or lions gate entertainment inc. doing business as lionsgate is an american entertainment company legally incorporated in canada . the company was formed on july 3 1997 in vancouver british columbia and is currently headquartered in santa monica california . 6 7 in addition to its well known lionsgate films division which generated the seventh highest gross revenue in north america in 2015 the company contains other divisions such as lionsgate television and lionsgate interactive . 8 it owns a variety of subsidiaries such as the american film production company summit entertainment and debmar mercury a television syndication company acquired by lionsgate in 2006 . contents 1 history 1.1 the company s formation 1.2 lionsgate s string of acquisitions 1.3 lionsgate increases and new ceo 2 films 3 television 4 video 5 record label and music publishing 6 lionsgate interactive 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit the company s formation edit lions gate entertainment corporation lionsgate was formed in 1997 by frank giustra and avi federgreen with a 16 million investment including another 40 million from other investors which included keyur patel and yorkton securities executives such as g. scott paterson . 9 giustra had recently retired as ceo from yorkton an investment bank and paterson was then president . giustra then merged lionsgate with toronto stock exchange listed beringer gold corp. founded in 1986 to take the company public . beringer s mining assets were soon sold off . 7 10 11 lionsgate s string of acquisitions edit lionsgate then began a series of acquisitions to get into the film industry . the company bought a number of small production facilities and distributors starting with montreal based cin pix film properties renamed as lions gate films and north shore studios renamed lions gate studios in vancouver british columbia . mandalay television was acquired by lionsgate from peter guber for a 4 % lionsgate stake . in 1998 lionsgate helped guber form mandalay pictures with a 45 % investment in mandalay . lionsgate followed that up with a june purchase of international movie group inc. img a bankrupt film distributor previously invested in by guber and yorktown securities for its film library . img s ceo peter strauss became president of lions gate entertainment inc. lge its u.s. holding company . lions gate media subsidiary was also formed to produce for television . 10 completing its first year of operation lionsgate had revenue of 42.2 million with loss of 397 000 . the company share price dropped to a low of 1.40 . this limited the corporation s ability to make acquisitions via stock swaps . lionsgate instead made its next acquisition of termite art productions a reality based television production company for 2.75 million by issuing three convertible promissory notes . giustra had the shareholders vote to move the company s public listing from the toronto stock exchange to the american stock exchange along with a two for one stock consolidation to qualify for greater exposure that might boost share value . 10 in january 1999 roman doroniuk was named president and chief operating officers of lionsgate which led to the corporation s financial operations being moved in april to doroniuk s offices in toronto while corporate headquarters remained in vancouver . lionsgate created us based avalanche films and acquired half of sterling home entertainment both in video sales . again lionsgate registered losses in its second year of 9.3 million on revenues of 78.3 million with most of the losses were from its stake in mandalay pictures . thus in the summer lionsgate placed its studios up for sale with no buyers . tv operations were changed to non network hour long series over riskier network shows and ended its relationship with mandalay television . the corporation sought out more capital and cash with a filing of a preliminary prospectus for the sale of preferred stock and common stock warrants and a 13.4 million line of credit . 10 lionsgate increases and new ceo edit additional acquisition funding arrived in january 2000 as a 33.1 million investment from an investor group that included paul allen former sony pictures executive jon feltheimer german broadcasting company tele munchen and sbs broadcasting sa . this led to feltheimer taking over as ceo from giustra thus the passed over doroniuk left the company . feltheimer increased film making including several 1 million films at avalanche . however federgreen still remains one of the major owners of the company and is extremely involved in the making of all their major movies . in june lionsgate acquired trimark holdings inc. for approximately 50 million in stock and cash including taking on 36 million in debt . 10 lionsgate continued making acquisitions during the decade to boost distribution and its film library . on december 15 2003 lionsgate acquired artisan entertainment for 220 million . 12 in 2004 erik nelson reacquired termite art and renamed it to creative differences . 13 lionsgate partnered with panamax films in 2005 to make movies for the latino market which only produced two films . 14 on april 13 2005 lionsgate spun off its canadian distribution unit into a new distribution unit called maple pictures under the direction of two former lionsgate executives brad pelman and laurie may . 15 16 17 on august 1 2005 lions gate entertainment acquired the entire library of modern entertainment the u.s. film division of the swedish television company modern times group . 18 19 on october 17 2005 lionsgate acquired uk company redbus film distribution for 35 million 20 21 22 and became lionsgate uk on february 23 2006 . 23 24 on march 15 2006 lionsgate sold lionsgate studios to bosa development corporation . 25 on july 12 lionsgate purchased debmar mercury an independent television distributor which has continued operations as a lionsgate subsidiary . 26 the company agreed in august to lease term with new mexico state land office and the city of rio rancho for a new 52.8 acres studio near rio rancho s under construction city center and arena . 27 on july 26 2007 lionsgate bought a partial stake in independent film distribution company roadside attractions . 28 lionsgate started up lionsgate music by june 2007 . 29 on september 10 2007 lionsgate bought mandate pictures for 56.3 million 44.3 million in cash and 12 million in stock and taking on 6.6 million of mandate s debt . mandate chief executive joe drake returned to the company as co chief operating officer of its film unit . 30 by july 2008 lionsgate has not made any progress on building its new film studio in rio rancho or on setting up the corporation to run the studio per its agreement with new mexico . 31 in january 2009 lionsgate purchased tv guide network and tvguide.com from rovi for 255 million cash . 32 in may 2009 lionsgate sold a 49 % stake in tv guide network and website to one equity partners under pressure from shareholder carl icahn . 33 lionsgate cut back its slate of films per year by four in february 2009 . in april relativity media signed with lionsgate for a 5 picture per year multi year film distribution . 34 in august lionsgate signed with redbox for a five year same day release deal worth 158 million . 35 lionsgate along with mgm and paramount pictures viacom is also a co owner of epix a pay tv movie channel which debuted on october 30 . 36 37 on september 13 2010 lionsgate and televisa formed a joint venture pantelion films to produce for the next five years eight to 10 films a year targeted for the u.s. latino market . 14 lionsgate sold off its canadian distribution unit maple pictures in september 2011 to alliance films . 38 lionsgate announced on january 13 2012 that it had acquired summit entertainment producers and distributors of the twilight saga films for 412.5 million . 39 the two companies have planned on merging since 2008 . 40 on october 6 2012 lions gate entertainment announced that brian goldsmith became the co coo of the company and joining co coo steve beeks . 41 on november 18 2012 lionsgate announced it has passed over the 1 billion mark for the first time with the success of the hunger games and the twilight saga breaking dawn part 2 . 42 on december 23 2013 lionsgate announced they have crossed over 1 billion domestically and internationally for the 2nd year in a row with the success of the hunger games catching fire now you see me instructions not included and kevin hart let me explain . 43 44 on april 14 2014 comcast acquired the remaining stakes in fearnet from lgf and sony pictures entertainment . 45 on april 21 2014 lionsgate announced that they will merge its movie marketing operations . 46 a few days later on april 30 lionsgate announced that the studios will expand into the gaming development . 47 on february 11 2015 john c. malone swapped a 4.5 % stake with 14.5 % of the voting power in starz inc. for 3.4 % of lionsgate s shares while joining the company s board of directors . 48 49 fourteen days later starz ceo chris albrecht hinted a possible merger with lionsgate . 50 on april 1 2015 according to deadline lionsgate announced it has created its new label lionsgate premiere . this new label will handle up to 15 releases a year targeting young audiences at theaters and digital outlets . the new label part of the company s diversification effort will incorporate lionsgate and summit entertainment titles including the step up film series and the red film series and then specialize in innovative multiplatform and other release strategies to reach affinity audiences with branded content and targeted marketing . marketing and research svp jean mcdowell will handle marketing with distribution to be run by adam sorensen who currently manages western sales . 51 on november 10 2015 malone s other two companies liberty global and discovery communications made a joint investment of 195 400 million in lionsgate and acquired a 3.4 % stake in the company . 52 53 54 55 56 then on june 30 2016 lionsgate agreed to acquire starz inc. for 4.4 billion in cash and stock . 57 on july 13 2016 lionsgate acquired a minority stake in startup company primal media . it was launched by matt steiner and adam wood who originally launched gogglebox entertainment that was acquired by sony pictures television . 58 films edit main article lionsgate films aside from home video distribution of films sub licensed from other studios lionsgate s library consists of films from the respective companies lionsgate succeeded