Eldridge Industries LLC terminated a $1bn deal to sell its Golden Globe Awards producer Dick Clark Productions Inc to Dalian Wanda Group Co and filed a lawsuit seeking a break-up fee, saying the Chinese conglomerate didn’t make payments on time. Billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Wanda missed a February 28 deadline to close deal, which triggers the release of a second $25mn breakup fee from an escrow account, an affiliate of Eldridge said in a lawsuit against a Wanda subsidiary with the Delaware Chancery Court on Friday.
An initial $25mn payment was made in January to extend the closing-date deadline. Eldridge sent Wanda a notice terminating their deal on March 6, and asked the court on Friday to order the Chinese company to pay the second fee, according to the filing.
The deal’s collapse could illustrate how Chinese companies, which announced a record volume of overseas deals last year, are facing mounting regulatory scrutiny and hurdles obtaining offshore funding in their pursuit of assets abroad.
US companies have warmed to the idea of selling themselves to Chinese buyers, but are taking steps to protect themselves in the form of break-up fees if acquisitions fall through. Yet capturing such fees may be difficult for US firms like Eldridge, who have limited transparency into how businesses in China operate.
Wanda declined to comment on the status of the deal earlier Friday. Dick Clark officials said in the court filing that they were forced to sue when the Wanda unit failed to “satisfy its obligation” to pay the termination fee.
For Wanda, buying Dick Clark Productions would have been a first foray into US television production, giving the company control of Dick Clark’s music and movie awards programmes, as well as TV shows. 
Eldridge, run by former Guggenheim executive Todd Boehly, controls the distributor that made Oscar best-picture winner Moonlight and just led a $100mn funding round at DraftKings. Other properties include Billboard magazine and the Hollywood Reporter.