The rise and fall of Reese Witherspoon’s media empire: Bought for $900 million, now worth less than $50 million

Reese Witherspoon and Mediawan have agreed to buy back the stake in her production company Hello Sunshine, five years after it was sold in a deal valuing the business at up to $900 million. Trade publications estimate its current value at no more than $50 million, a sharp fall that reflects the gap between the company’s media success and buyers’ ambitions to build a broader lifestyle brand.

Hello Sunshine remains influential through its book club and screen adaptations, including Big Little Lies and Daisy Jones & The Six. But it has laid off 30 staff, about half its workforce, including the entire consumer products and sales division. Witherspoon reportedly received around $120 million from the 2021 deal; the article says Candle Media, backed by Blackstone, invested in Hello Sunshine as part of acquisitions totalling as much as $4 billion.