Cordoba outlines plans for M&A war chest

European media group Cordoba is looking to acquire up to ten companies over the coming months using a warchest totalling several hundred million pounds, its chief exec has told Broadcast International.

Cordoba was formally unveiled in June with an ambition to transform the industry by adopting AI across the entire production process.

It also boasts a senior advisory panel that includes former BBC chief Tony Hall, Sky Italia and Yahoo Europe co-founder Dana Al Salem, and Dr Luc Julia, co-creator of Apple’s Siri.

Chief exec Jesse Mimeran has been working on the company’s launch for the past two years, and says it is set to complete a funding round later this year to supercharge operations. 

Discussions with companies in the UK and Europe valued at between £10m-£40m are already underway, he added.

Leveraging AI

Mimeran’s journey is quite the story: once an opera singer, he subsequently moved into TV production and then worked on concerts and festivals, before discussing the idea of creating a tech-driven media firm with friends after the pandemic.

“And I say some friends because really at the beginning that’s what it was, a group of friends and an idea,” he says.

The aim then, and now, is for Cordoba “to be the champion of integrating technologies into the production process”, he explains, with a team built and a group of senior advisers attached who, as Mimeran puts it, “are very well known and engaged”.

Cordoba is loking to work across genres and will partner with TV, film and creator economy companies to develop original content, producing series, films, non-fiction, branded content and digital experiences.

Mimeran says he named the company Cordoba after the Spanish city that became famous as a place of multi-faith coexistence more than 1,000 years ago, and he wants a similarly broad-minded approach for his firm’s operations, combining all facets of technology to drive innovation, rather than simply becoming another M&A vehicle.

“We need to create a new system, but [Cordoba] is not simply an upgrade on the old ways – we want to create something new using all the technologies available now to improve all the different processes and aspects of production.”

That means integrating AI into each step across the development and production timeline, from cutting down development to enabling a quicker, more efficient post-production operation, he says.

“And we need to make sure that creatives can accept this, because while we need to create a model that is disruptive and derisked, it also has to be narrative first. It has to put the power of the technology in the hands of the creatives.”

Around 25 generative AI filmmakers have already been hired, working out of 12 different countries, with the collective operating under Cordoba’s AI Talents division.

“We have started the real work with Cordoba AI Talent, because we already have deal flows in this part of the company. There’s a lot of demand, which we didn’t think would happen so quickly. We launched in June, and we are already at the level that we thought we’d be at after 12 months in terms of projects.”

The company has also unveiled Cordoba Trackflow, a platform designed to align AI and content creation from development through to delivery that Mimeran says will help drive the aforementoned production efficiencies.

Investment & spending plans

There is also much more on the horizon, if Mimeran and the Cordoba team have their way.

The company already has the backing of French and American investors – details are under wraps but Broadcast International understands they include around six private equity firms and family estates – while the autmn funding round will kickstart the M&A activity.

Targets in the UK, France and Germany are being explored, while creative talents will also be brought into the fold to launch their own outfits. Formats and fiction will be among focuses, Mimeran says, underlining his desire to not just create but retain IP.

“We will look [to take] acquisitions of 51% and the pricing will be between £10m and £40m per company. The UK market is very consolidated so opportunities in that country will also come in the form of creating new companies.”

Mimeran is also clear that the goal behind all his M&A ambition is to work with companies to help them expand, again leveraging the capabilities of AI to improve workflows.

“In the UK, we can see there are crises of commissioning, problems with content production… everything is linked in a way to how can we improve the system.”