After more than eight years under the same roof, Starz and Lionsgate are officially separate companies once more.

Starz completed its split from the studio on Wednesday and will begin life as a standalone public company when markets open, trading shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shareholders of Lionsgate, which acquired Starz in late 2016, overwhelmingly approved the separation in an April 23 meeting, with 99 percent voting yes.

Today marks an important milestone in our history as we unlock significant value as a standalone business and advance our position as the leading premium entertainment destination for women and underrepresented audiences, Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch said in a statement. This separation comes at a pivotal time for the industry. Our strong balance sheet, compelling programming lineup and industry-leading tech stack will enable us to be nimble and capitalize on growth opportunities, while driving long-term success for our partners, audiences, employees and shareholders. We are thankful to Jon (Feltheimer) and the entire Lionsgate team for the past eight years of collaboration as well as for the ongoing partnership well maintain, and I look forward to beginning this new chapter for Starz. The two companies will still be intertwined on screen, as Lionsgate Television produces the flagship Power franchise for Starz along with BMF, P-Valley and the upcoming series The Hunting Wives.

Starz has about 20 million streaming and premium cable subscribers in the U.S. and Canada and says about 70 percent of its revenue now comes from its digital platforms. Its also home to Outlander, with a prequel series set to premiere later in the year. As it has for most of its time under Lionsgate, Starz will continue its creative focus on series aimed at and led by women and traditionally underrepresented audiences.

Lionsgate began the process of separating from Starz in late 2023, when it formed a special purpose acquisition company with the intent of splitting the two entities. We had a number of options available for executing this step in our overall strategic plan, Lionsgate CEO Feltheimer said soon after the SPAC plan was announced. We believe that we selected thebestoption for aligning with our goal of a full separation, raising capital efficiently with substantial proceeds available to delever, and establishing an appropriate valuation for our studio supported by blue chip investors.