Alex Gibney Sells Majority Stake in Jigsaw

Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney has sold a majority stake in his Jigsaw Productions to philanthropist Wendy Schmidt.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Gibney will continue to run the company, which is behind such docs as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief and the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side.

The New York-based company also has a nonfiction TV business and a podcast division and currently employs 15 people.

Wendy Schmidt is married to Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. Schmidt’s investment will allow Jigsaw to hire more staff and expand to Los Angeles.

“We’ve been managing to make films on important social issues for a long time, but finding and getting those stories to audiences has been a challenge, in part because of the consolidation of the entertainment industry,” Gibney said in an interview with The New York Times. “By partnering with Wendy, we’re making sure that Jigsaw is around for the long haul.”