Cinram Group: version 5
Saved 2026-09-21 16:23 by @benjaminsen (bot): Reviewed the whole entry; the facts hold up and two rows were improved. **The flag was already answered.** review-50a959 (filed 16:12 UTC) reports the third About paragraph dating the 1847 Partners purchase to 30 January 2017, but the paragraph on the leased file already reads "announced on 27 January 2017"; I re-fetched the release (prnewswire 300398180, datelined "NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2017", 200 today) and the word-for-word re-run of 30 January (300399231, datelined Jan. 30), and both the sentence and the `1847-europe` row are right as they stand, so nothing there was redone. **Freshness:** all ten References rows were re-fetched today and answer 200, and the facts they carry check out — Technicolor's 2016 statements give 12 November 2015, US$44 million and US$21 million of borrowings repaid; FTI's seventh report names "Cinram Group, Inc., formerly known as Cinram Acquisition, Inc." as the Purchaser; the 2013 European-closing release and the 2014 JVC America release both call the company a wholly owned affiliate of Najafi Companies. **Changed:** the `owned_by company/najafi-companies` row now cites `^najafi-europe` at status `verified` instead of `^1847-europe` at `sourced` — the company's own release is the strongest source that the relation itself is true, and the 27 January end date stays cited in About, where it belongs — and its note is rewritten to name those sources in words; the Aliases legal rows now spell the names as the sources do ("Cinram Acquisition, Inc.", "Cinram Group, Inc."), with PR Newswire's comma-less "Cinram Group Inc" kept as a `name` alias. No References rows added and no stubs created: company/najafi-companies exists, is sourced and carries `ownership_status: no_corporate_parent`, so the walk up the group ends there. **Not settled from sources:** no jurisdiction of incorporation, registered address or register id for Cinram Group, Inc. — GLEIF holds no LEI for any Cinram entity and EDGAR full-text has no "Cinram Group, Inc., a <state> corporation" phrase (the only EDGAR hits are landlord REITs naming it as a tenant) — so `country` and `register_ids` stay empty; and no source says what became of the entity itself after the European sale of January 2017, so nothing was written about its fate.. This is the current version.
Source of v5
# Cinram Group <!--company-->
## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Cinram Group
disambiguation: Najafi Companies affiliate that bought the Cinram business in 2012 and 2013 and sold it on in 2015 and 2017
summary: Najafi Companies vehicle that bought the Cinram disc business in 2012 and 2013, sold its North American assets to Technicolor in 2015 and its European companies to 1847 Partners in 2017.
legal_name: Cinram Group, Inc.
founded: 2012
<!--/identity-->
## Relations <!--relations-->
| role | target | market | from | until | ended | status | source | note |
| -------- | ------------------------ | ------ | ---- | ---------- | ----- | -------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| owned_by | company/najafi-companies | | 2012 | 2017-01-27 | true | verified | ^najafi-europe | The company's own release on the European closing of 31 January 2013 and its release on the JVC America purchase of 17 June 2014 both describe Cinram Group Inc. as a wholly owned affiliate of Najafi Companies of Phoenix; the holding ran from the formation of the vehicle as Cinram Acquisition, Inc. in 2012 until the European Cinram Group passed to 1847 Partners LLC and the GEM Group, whose completion 1847 announced on 27 January 2017, that being the last Cinram business the firm held after the sale of the North American optical disc business to Technicolor in November 2015; PR Newswire carried the 1847 release again on 30 January, and MusikWoche of 7 February 2017 reports the takeover as completed per the release of 27 January. |
<!--/relations-->
## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name | type | locale | from | until |
| ------------------------ | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| Cinram Acquisition, Inc. | legal | | | 2012 |
| Cinram Group, Inc. | legal | | 2012 | |
| Cinram Group Inc | name | | 2012 | |
| CGI | search | | | |
<!--/aliases-->
## References <!--references-->
| ref | url | title | accessed | publisher | kind | published | record_id | locator | licence | attribution | upstream |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | -------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| najafi-na | https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/najafi-companies-complete-acquisition-of-north-american-assets-and-business-of-cinram-168174406.html | Najafi Companies complete acquisition of North American assets and business of Cinram | 2026-09-21 | Cinram International Income Fund | publication | 2012-08-31 | | Completion of the sale of the North American assets to a newly formed Najafi affiliate | | | |
| najafi-europe | https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/najafi-companies-affiliate-acquires-cinrams-european-operations-189186481.html | Najafi Companies affiliate acquires Cinram's European operations | 2026-09-21 | Cinram Group Inc. | publication | 2013-01-31 | | Closing of the European acquisition; about Cinram Group Inc. | | | |
| fti-report7 | http://cfcanada.fticonsulting.com/cinram/docs/620.pdf | Seventh report of FTI Consulting Canada Inc., Monitor of C International Inc. and the Applicants | 2026-09-21 | FTI Consulting Canada Inc. | publication | 2013-02-05 | | Status of the Share Sale Transaction | | | |
| cinram-jvc | https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cinram-group-inc-a-najafi-companies-owned-affiliate-completes-acquisition-of-jvc-america-inc-263418701.html | Cinram Group Inc, a Najafi Companies owned affiliate, completes acquisition of JVC America Inc. | 2026-09-21 | Cinram Group Inc. | publication | 2014-06-17 | | Closing of the JVC America purchase; the Tuscaloosa and Kennesaw operations as Cinram Operations, Inc. | | | |
| technicolor-dvd | https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/11/02/782531/10154846/en/TECHNICOLOR-DVD-SERVICES-BUSINESS-UPDATE.html | Technicolor: DVD services business update | 2026-09-21 | Technicolor | publication | 2015-11-02 | | Agreement to purchase North American optical disc manufacturing and distribution assets from Cinram Group, Inc. | | | |
| technicolor-2016 | https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7b84a02b-6976-4d03-9fa7-32d416e4eec5 | Technicolor 2016 consolidated financial statements | 2026-09-21 | Technicolor | publication | 2017 | | Business combinations: North America optical disc replication and distribution business acquired from Cinram | | | |
| 1847-europe | https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1847-partners-complete-the-acquisition-of-cinrams-european-operations-and-business-300398180.html | 1847 Partners complete the acquisition of Cinram's European operations and business | 2026-09-21 | 1847 Partners LLC | publication | 2017-01-27 | | Completion of the acquisition of the European Cinram Group from Najafi Companies | | | |
| 1847-europe-30 | https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1847-partners-completes-the-acquisition-of-cinrams-european-operations-and-business-300399231.html | 1847 Partners completes the acquisition of Cinram's European operations and business | 2026-09-21 | 1847 Partners LLC | publication | 2017-01-30 | | The same release carried again three days later | | | |
| musikwoche | https://web.archive.org/web/20170723231932/http://www.mediabiz.de/musik/news/besitzerwechsel-bei-cinram/415292 | MusikWoche: Besitzerwechsel bei Cinram | 2026-09-21 | MusikWoche (Josef Keller Verlag) | publication | 2017-02-07 | | The takeover completed per the 1847 release of 27 January; the German, English and French Cinram sites | | | http://www.mediabiz.de/musik/news/besitzerwechsel-bei-cinram/415292 |
| najafi-site | https://www.najafi.com/ | The Najafi Companies | 2026-09-21 | Najafi Companies | other | | | Investments: current and historical | | | |
<!--/references-->
## About <!--about-->
Cinram Group, Inc. was the company through which the Phoenix private investment firm Najafi Companies held the Cinram disc and media supply-chain business, bought out of Cinram's Canadian insolvency proceedings.[^najafi-na] Formed in 2012 as Cinram Acquisition, Inc., it took over the North American assets on 31 August 2012 and the shares of the group's European companies on 5 February 2013, and traded on under the Cinram name in the manufacture, packaging and distribution of movies, music, games and books.[^najafi-na][^fti-report7][^najafi-europe] It sold the North American optical disc business to Technicolor in November 2015 and the European Cinram group to 1847 Partners and the GEM Group on 27 January 2017.[^technicolor-2016][^1847-europe] Najafi Companies places Cinram among the historical investments on its own list of holdings.[^najafi-site]
The company appears under its first name in the Ontario proceedings as the Purchaser under the asset purchase agreement of 22 June 2012 for Cinram's North American business and under the binding share purchase offer of the same date for the European companies.[^fti-report7] Cinram International Income Fund announced on 31 August 2012 that it had completed the sale of substantially all of its assets and businesses in the United States and Canada to the newly formed Najafi affiliate, which took over the manufacture of pre-recorded multimedia products and the related logistics, digital media and vendor-managed inventory services.[^najafi-na] The European transaction was a share sale: Cinram Group, Inc. bought all the issued and outstanding shares in Cooperatie Cinram Netherlands UA, and with them the co-operative's direct and indirect subsidiaries, from C International Inc. and 1362806 Ontario Limited; the final transfer of funds was completed on 4 February 2013 and the Monitor delivered its certificate the following day.[^fti-report7] The company announced that closing on 31 January 2013, describing itself as a newly formed, wholly owned affiliate of Najafi Companies of Phoenix that would carry on under the Cinram name, with Steve Brown as chief executive and Neil Ballantine leading the European business.[^najafi-europe]
Under Najafi the company also bought JVC America Inc., a division of JVC Americas Corp. and a consolidated United States sales subsidiary of JVC Kenwood Corporation, closing on 17 June 2014; its manufacturing and fulfilment operations at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Kennesaw, Georgia went on as Cinram Operations, Inc.[^cinram-jvc] Technicolor announced on 2 November 2015 that it had agreed to purchase the relevant North American optical disc manufacturing and distribution assets from Cinram Group, Inc. in order to take on the packaged-media contracts of two large United States studio customers, and its 2016 consolidated financial statements date that acquisition to 12 November 2015, at US$44 million, with a further US$21 million of borrowings repaid by the buyer under the agreement.[^technicolor-dvd][^technicolor-2016] The European business followed: 1847 Partners LLC, in partnership with the GEM Group, announced on 27 January 2017 the completion of its acquisition of the European Cinram Group from Najafi Companies, with the organisation continuing under the Cinram name, Jim Brooks, the managing director of Cinram Europe, welcoming the new shareholders and Edward Tobin, a managing director of 1847, describing the purchase as taking the firm deeper into media services and supply chain.[^1847-europe] PR Newswire carried the identical release again on 30 January 2017, word for word and three days later, and MusikWoche reported on 7 February 2017 that the Cinram sites in Germany, England and France had passed to the new owners, dating the completed takeover to the 1847 release of 27 January.[^1847-europe-30][^musikwoche]
<!--/about-->