EXCLUSIVE: Ireland’s Playhouse Studios has swooped for troubled UK post-production house Lipsync, saving dozens of jobs in the process.
The Dublin-based Playhouse paid an undisclosed amount to accountancy firm Oury Clark for the assets of The Brutalist post house, we’ve learned.
Deadline revealed in May that Lipsync had effectively filed for the British version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid the brutal landscape for post-production companies after the pandemic and Hollywood strikes. Oury Clark took charge of Lipsync’s operations and was working to financially restructure so the post house could pay creditors.
The Playhouse deal ends that process and means Lipsync will not go the same way as the likes of Technicolor, which imploded earlier this year in one of the most spectacular corporate collapses of recent times.
The Lipsync brand will remain the deal keeps a large proportion of Lipsync’s staff in work, though an undisclosed number of roles will be laid off. The company had around 70 staff, who were at risk of redundancy during the bankruptcy process.
“In an industry where jobs are disappearing every week, we are glad that we were able to keep the majority of people in jobs at Lipsync,” Playhouse Group’s Peggy Cafferty told Deadline. However, she added that Playhouse had still been forced to “make some tough choices.”
Focus Capital Partners acted as corporate finance advisor to Playhouse. The Ireland- and U.S.-based Focus handled the transaction, and has also raised new capital for Playhouse Studios parent Playhouse Group, which is scaling its operations across the UK and Europe. Wallace Corporate Counsel acted as the legal advisors.
Playhouse is an Irish media production company focused on production, post-production, and film and TV financing. The company said the Lipsync acquisition would be a “cornerstone in the Playhouse Group’s strategy to build Europe’s most advanced and agile production, post-production and content financing group.”
Playhouse has installed former Molinare Managing Director Mark Foligno as CEO, with Lorcan Kavanagh and Cafferty named Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively. They will collectively lead the expansion plan.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Soho, London, Lipsync became well established in picture and sound post-production, visual effects, and digital intermediate services. It worked on numerous BAFTA- and Academy-winning films such as 2025 Oscar Best Picture nominee The Brutalist. Prior to that, it provided post services to The Father, The Queen and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri among many others, and had also become active in film financing.
Managing Director Peter Hampden and financial chief Norman Merry led the company, operating it through parent company Glenthorp Ltd. Merry passed away from cancer aged 63 earlier this month.
Playhouse’s acquisition of the storied company comes as the post industry battles a continued and damaging downturn, with Technicolor’s closure leading to huge job losses and the likes of DNEG laying hundreds off.
Today’s news is a bright spot among the chaos. In other example of green shoots, staff from Technicolor subsidiary The Mill partnered with Dream Machine FX to launch ARC Creative, while the closure of Irish biz Windmill Lane Pictures led to several of its execs partnering with Molinare to form Elephant Goldfish, news of which we revealed earlier this month.
