U.K.-based Caledonia Investments has acquired a majority stake in privately owned cinema lens maker Cooke Optics, whose camera lenses were recently used on films including Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour and the upcoming Venom. Terms of the deal were not disclosed at press time.
The current Cooke management team — including chairman Les Zellan, CEO Robert Howard and COO Alan Merrills — remains in place, and day-to-day activities will continue unchanged, according to the company.
“We have been experiencing a sustained period of growth, and the time was right to look for a new investor to help us develop further,” Zellan said Monday in a released statement. “Caledonia, another historic British company, has a reputation for long-term investment and for supporting management teams to grow their businesses. With a strong financial partner in Caledonia, Cooke is in an excellent position to continue designing and making more of our coveted lenses for the film and television industry.”
For its lens innovation, Cooke received an Academy Award of Merit (an Oscar statuette) in 2013. Its most recent developments include the S7/i full frame lens range, Panchro/i Classic range and Anamorphic/i SF range. The company also developed the lens metadata system /i technology, which captures lens information for use on-set and in postproduction.
