Vestron Information

Vestron was founded in 1981 by Austin Owen Furst Jr. The most notable titles Vestron released were Michael Jackson's Thriller, Dirty Dancing, Monster Squad, and An American Werewolf in London. In later years, the company began to shift towards mainstream films, including films released through their Vestron Pictures subsidiary, most notably Dirty Dancing. Vestron was the first company to release National Geographic and PBS' Nova videos in the late 1980s. Vestron went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1985 with what was, at the time, a large market cap initial public offering (IPO) of $440 million, which was oversubscribed. The company enjoyed success for several years, at one point exceeding 10% of the US video movie market. At its high point sales approximated $350 million annually, and the company sold video movies in over 60 countries through direct distribution. The company filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, and was bought out on January 11, 1991, by Los Angeles-based LIVE Entertainment, a home video and music company, for $27.3 million. LIVE acquired Vestron's extensive (3,000 plus) film library; titles continued to be released under the Vestron name until 1992, with LIVE distributing these releases.