Exclusive: Sean Cody Acquired By Mindgeek/Manwin, A.k.a. the Same Company That Owns Men.com

The deal is done, gentlemen. The Sword brings you the exclusive news, which was whisper-rumored in the industry for a couple of months, that Sean Cody has officially become part of the MindGeek (formerly Manwin) porn empire. What will this mean for one of the most successful and respected gay porn operations in the business? Only time will tell.

News like this is bound to cause some “another one bites the dust” sentiment among porn fans, especially those who are familiar with the vastly different quality of the product being produced by Sean Cody vs. Men.com.

A person familiar with the deal who prefers to remain anonymous has confirmed for The Sword that Sean Cody himself has inked the deal to sell off the enterprise for an undisclosed sum to the company that owns the massive tube sites that have been pirating Sean Cody’s content for years, sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube. And, if you look down at the bottom of Sean Cody’s homepage now in the new year, as Sword commenter John points out, you can see the contact info for the company has already changed to “MG Billing US Corp” in Wilmington, Delaware.

But what will become of Ye Olde Sectional!?! Will shooting in that ever-familiar San Diego home with the infinity pool shift to some generic locker room set Las Vegas?? Will they make beautiful Brandon bottom for Colby Jansen??!? Or worse, fuck Johnny Rapid!?!?!

Noooooooooooo!
Noooooooooooo!

 

As Slate discussed in this piece from October, MindGeek is a bit of a “cautionary tale” for media companies looking to become vertical monopolies covering all ends of the internet. And having acquired so many porn content producers, they’re now “putting industry members in the paradoxical position of working for the very company that profits from the piracy of their work.” Also, it makes the production of high-quality porn almost a disincentive, since the motivation is no longer there to create a singular, successful brand that makes money from subscribers. “The distributor doesn’t necessarily need to make content that generates adequate money for the content producers, as long as it generates money somehow,” Slate points out, like from advertising on tube sites.

So, how long is Sean Cody — who’s now a multi-millionaire at 43 having starting his company in 2001 at the age of 30 — and the team behind him that does all the casting and shooting of the site’s wildly successful content, planning to stick around? My guess is probably not long, though the brand’s reputation among porn connoisseurs could plummet fast if the core creative team leaves too quickly.

MindGeek, though, has been more in the business of quantity over quality (ahem, Men.com), but that’s not to say that the details of this deal don’t lock in Sean Cody’s production team for some specific amount of time.

I’m hoping to get a comment from the Sean Cody camp, or MindGeek, shortly. Stay tuned.

65 thoughts on “Exclusive: Sean Cody Acquired By Mindgeek/Manwin, A.k.a. the Same Company That Owns Men.com”

  1. I hope this company takes some moral and social responsibility by having SC return to using condoms. The bareback uprising is startling and very upsetting. Do we need another 1985 to reinforce that you can’t fuck around like 1975?

  2. I really don’t care who the new owners are, they don’t make any effort to include men of color and I don’t subscribe to any of those sites so I don’t see what that issue is….

  3. You know there could’ve been a lawsuit like Brent Corrigan. Maybe Sean Cody was tricked and the only way he wouldn’t lose everything was to sale.

  4. Very sad news. Sean Cody had already showed signs of going to “the Dark Side” of the gay porn force. In recent years, he went away from the clean cut jock look (the perfect Brandon) to the standard issue inked thug twink (the unsightly David) look that is Men.com’s (and now, yet another Marwin acquisition, Next Door Buddies’) stock and trade.

    Guess I’ll devote more time to the church than choking the chicken as a result of this continuing consolidation of the industry. Is nothing sacred anymore? Shame on you, Sean Cody; shame on you!

      1. I acknowledge that Joey and Dean more your standard Sean Cody models. But, before the last couple of years, you would have been hard pressed to find any thugs on this site. I was equally disappointed that Sean Cody went all bareback.

        I realize that SC was just reflecting our society in general — the general emasculation of society as a whole. For many queer males — who are so effeminate that might as well chop it off — this may be a time to celebrate (“We won! Go girls!”). But, for those of us who really prefer men remain men, it is indeed a sad state of affairs.

    1. “Unsightly inked thug”???? David is a handsome guy and one of the most passionate performers SC have had…
      says a lot about you buddy Dissing people on the internet……

      1. Joe and Peter.

        Take a look at Sean’s Cody’s solo post today. The latest Inked Ugly — Dillon — has joined the site. Like I said, porn’s version of the apocalypse is upon us — MEN.com is taking over the world.

        Run, children run! No one is safe.

  5. I have had a membership to SC for years. It’s the best $9.95 that I spend a month. I hope like hell they keep some level of independence. Who knows SC may be in financial trouble and wanted to sell before the company was worthless. That house up on Cromwell can’t be cheap. I wonder if they are going to sell that house? It has a good view and lots of sun. The neighbors are very close on both sides that probably why there is no pool sex.

    It may be time to start looking for another site. I would like to hear from SC.

  6. This is most sad, but what with the piracy aspect etc could be a matter of if you can’t beat them then cash in. By the way Kenny, Fiat have actually owned Ferrari for many years. However not withstanding the vast inferiority of Men.com it would be interesting to see Brandon in a hot flip flop 3 sum with Paddy O’Brian and Sebastian Young!

  7. Well here comes the cheap looking aspects of amateur porn that YouPorn, Pornhub are so well known for coming soon to Sean Cody.. I wonder how drastically and quickly the budget cuts will come that will affect the product of Sean Cody which will turn off it’s subscribers who will flee to other high budget studios such as Bel Ami or Corbin Fisher. I think the first casualties of those budget cuts will be the most popular models leaving, which will cause the subscribers to cancel their memberships. I imagine there is a trove of scenes of the most popular models yet to be shown so it will appear for a while at least that they are still with Sean Cody.

  8. And, is there any indication that Sean Cody is going to be merged with Men.com? Mindgeek owns many porn sites and they are not carbon copies of one another. If you look at their straight sites, they maintain some uniqueness and niche qualities (so Brazzers is different from Playboy). It’s probably down to PAYING members of SC who would like the outfit to maintain its unique flavour to let the new owners know what you think. You can threaten to defect to a similarly-niched competition site – unless of course, Mindgeek’s bought that as well.

  9. Don’t be shocked. The ownership structure of porn sites has been a story of mergers and buys. This is inevitable as porn companies have been losing money to tube/sharing sites and torrents. What makes this bad scenario even worse is that Mindgeek – the biggest porn conglomerate – is also the owner of some of the biggest porn tube sites. The days of the smaller independent porn companies are numbered as we see a rapid shift to productions on scale (or quantity over quality). But hey, it’s what the masses want to see…

  10. This has been a depressing day for icons. First, Phylicia Rashad and now this. It’s sad that now the days of complaining about another Jack scene are going to look glorious compared to what mindgeek churns out. If there’s a positive in this awful awful mess, maybe some of the hot, never-to-return, models of Sean Cody will go have limp sex on Men. Ugh nvm, the thought of Davis or a returned Peter with the Rapid troll disgusts me. I do wonder Mr. Cody is going to say to fans and subscribers now that he’s sold out.

    1. It would be nice for him and the new studio owners too as far as their goals for the company. I know Mr. Cody prides himself on his silence and secrecy, but after all of these years I have supported him as a loyal subscriber–almost 10 years….120 consecutive months…it would be nice to hear something.

  11. So the site that films gay sex and captures the glory of cum better than any other site has ever done was purchased by the site that has never filmed the sex well or almost never captures the cumshot at its best angle? Sickening news.

  12. Perhaps Sean Cody sued Mindgeek for copyright infringement, and the parties worked out a settlement involving the sale of Sean Cody’s video inventory and the “Sean Cody” brand name to Mindgeek. There is nothing else that could be sold, and Sean Cody is surely free to start another porn company under a new brand name. Under California law, Sean Cody doesn’t own his employees, contractors, or models; they are all free to work for anyone that will hire them, including competitors of Mindgeek or any enterprise that Sean Cody might own or establish. The settlement is not binding on anyone who worked for Sean Cody. However, it’s possible that the settlement requires Mindgeek to continue to employ certain members of the Sean Cody staff.

    1. That makes little sense. Why would he drop his well established company name just to start a new one?

      More likely, there is much less money to be made in porn these days thanks to piracy and he was done with the changing times and was ready to move on….I would too if I were him. Always best to know when to cash out and move on.

      1. No, my speculation about the lawsuit and settlement makes a lot of sense. Apparently you don’t know that Sean Cody has previously sued and obtained judgments against people that have pirated his videos.

        But the conclusion you drew from my comment–that I’m suggesting he’s going to start another porn site–is a non sequitur. I said, “Under California law, Sean Cody doesn’t own his employees, contractors, or models; they are all free to work for anyone that will hire them, including competitors of Mindgeek or any enterprise that Sean Cody might own or establish.” Nothing in that statement suggests Sean Cody is going to start another porn site.

        But for all we know, Sean Cody already owns other porn sites.

        If, as you seem to think, the SC site is unprofitable or unsustainable, then why did MG buy SC’s customer accounts? Surely, MG examined SC’s books beforehand.

        1. Sueing people cost a lot of money with return not always assured. Remember that Corbin Fisher sued people in Brazil (!)for pirating content? He won but it cost him a lot of money and the return was zero.
          My guess is that SC looked at the future of gay porn and wasn’t happy what he saw. An entire new generation that never paid for porn, piracy impossible to combat, the kind of models SC is looking for increasingly difficult to find because of privacy issues in the internet age (your scenes will not disappear), HIV and low scene rates because of piracy. On the political front there is the increasing pressure to make it illegal to film bareback scenes. Who can blame SC for selling his company now that it is still worth some $$$?

          1. 1. “Sueing [sic] people cost a lot of money with return not always assured.”

            The results are assured if someone in the US is violating your copyrights. The statutory damages alone from so-called piracy often exceed actual damages. Collection of the judgment against MG would be a matter of serving a levy order at MG’s published US billing address: MG Billing US Corp, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, DE 19801, USA.

            Sean Cody has sued and won, and so have others.

            2. “My guess is that SC looked at the future of gay porn and wasn’t happy what he saw. An entire new generation that never paid for porn, piracy impossible to combat, the kind of models SC is looking for increasingly difficult to find because of privacy issues in the internet age (your scenes will not disappear), HIV and low scene rates because of piracy. On the political front there is the increasing pressure to make it illegal to film bareback scenes. Who can blame SC for selling his company now that it is still worth some $$$?”

            Unless he was stoned, I doubt he saw what you see.

            There’s no generation that has never paid for porn, for if there were, Sean Cody could not have found a buyer for his site. But even if no one had to pay to watch porn, that doesn’t mean that it would be unprofitable to make porn. Generations of people have never paid to watch over-the-air broadcasts of TV shows, yet the broadcasters have always been able to reap huge profits by interrupting the shows to run ads.

            Piracy is not impossible to combat; people have sued and won and collected substantial judgments.

            There’s no shortage of would-be models. The supply exceeds the demand as a result of more straight guys wanting to do gay porn.

            Even before the “internet age,” no one’s “scenes” ever “disappeared.” Since before the “internet age,” every porn performer has had to sign a release allowing his images to be distributed in perpetuity by the studio, its successors, or by anyone to whom the studio or its successors assign their rights. By signing such a release, it’s guaranteed that those “scenes” will be around forever.

            HIV has nothing to do with the future of porn. There will always be a market for porn.

            Low “scene” rates are result of an increase in the supply of would-be gay-porn performers, due to the rise in the number of straight guys willing to do gay porn. Low “scene” rates mean lower operating expenses which means bigger profits, not smaller profits.

            For more than a decade, there were no bareback “scenes.” So why would outlawing it suddenly make porn unprofitable?
            Even if the recent controversial California bill had passed, it would not have outlawed bareback productions. There will always be a market for porn.

      2. I do know he sued people, all of those porn sites have, not sure why he would settle with them and handover his whole catalog of work…that’t what makes makes little sense.

        If you’re suing someone for stealing your stuff, you don’t say, okay you can have it for this price–you say, pay me this and keep your hands off my shit.

        Of course he doesn’t “own” how models, no company owns their employee’s this is The United States–I’m sure models will come and go as they always have and some will go to other sites.

        Additionally, I did not say SC wasn’t profitable, I said it is less profitable than it was. It is well known that due to piracy, there is far less money in porn than there once was. Its always been suggested that the “porn bubble” burst back in 2008 when studios were at their height of revenue generation.

        1. 1) “not sure why he would settle with them and handover his whole catalog of work…that’t what makes makes little sense.”

          I really doubt that Sean Cody simply handed over his “whole catalog of work”; surely, he sold the distribution rights. There’s nothing of value to a porn biz besides the distribution rights and the customer accounts. Do you actually believe Sean Cody sold the customer accounts but retained the distribution rights? That would make little sense. Who would buy the customer accounts but not the distribution rights?

          2) “If you’re suing someone for stealing your stuff, you don’t say, okay you can have it for this price–you say, pay me this and keep your hands off my shit.”

          Selling the biz IS saying “pay me this.” That’s called a settlement. Most lawsuits are settled to avoid the delay and expense of litigation. The courts encourage the parties top settle. Businesses are bought and sold all the time.

          3) Of course he doesn’t “own” how models, no company owns their employee’s this is The United States–I’m sure models will come and go as they always have and some will go to other sites.

          Some East Coast companies, e.g., MEN, have their models “under contract”; its models cannot work for a competitor during the term of the contract. In effect, MEN “owns” its models until their contracts expire. If MEN were sold, its model contracts would be part of the sale. Due to California’s “right to work” public policy, models of companies that operate in California, e.g. SC, are not “under contract.”

          4) Additionally, I did not say SC wasn’t profitable, I said it is less profitable than it was. It is well known that due to piracy, there is far less money in porn than there once was. Its always been suggested that the “porn bubble” burst back in 2008 when studios were at their height of revenue generation.

          You don’t know that it was “less profitable,” or how much “less profitable.” Being “less profitable” isn’t necessarily a reason to sell. If, as you assert, “it is well known that due to piracy, there is far less money in porn than there once was,” then why isn’t everyone selling out for being “less profitable”? Seems to me the number of porn sites is rising, not falling, which means (a) there’s more competition for porn customer dollars and (b) porn must still be a profitable business.

          5) The vlogger wrote: “A person familiar with the deal who prefers to remain anonymous has confirmed for The Sword that Sean Cody himself has inked the deal to sell off the enterprise for an undisclosed sum to the company that owns the massive tube sites that have been pirating Sean Cody’s content for years, sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube.” I doubt that’s there any truth to the allegation of piracy, for if it could be proved that MG operates sites that are “pirating” SC’s content, then MG would be crippled by damages and civil and criminal penalties for copyright infringement.

          1. Privacy: these days it is relative easy to find out a person’s real name, where he lives and what he does because of Facebook, Twitter etc and because of the internet people can see previews with a few clicks. Back in the old days (let’s say 1980s Falcon days)few people could find out the real name of a gay porn model. Now we have Noel from Sean Cody appearing on local news with his mom explaining why he is expelled from school.

            HIV: The little secret of American gay porn is that a lot of models are HIV+. Some estimates go as high as 60–70%. To our knowledge SC doesn’t use HIV+ models for his bb action scenes but it means that the group from which you can recruit models is a lot smaller. Some people were wondering why some guys who did a solo at SC did not return for action scenes. HIV might be a reason.

            Scene rates: the scene rates started to drop in 2008. This was not because of the economic crisis but of piracy. The increase in internet speed meant that people could download a scene or DVD in a short time. And they did en masse. Profits dropped considerable and this led to a lower scene rate for performers.

            Bareback: one of the biggest changes in the gay porn industry in the past decade is the rise of bareback gay porn. In 2005 there were only a few companies that produced bareback gay porn (who were mainly treated as outcasts). Look at where we are now: the most succesfull companies (Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher and BelAmi) are all bb companies. Scenes that are most pirated are almost always bb scenes. On of the few condom companies that can compete is MEN.com. The gay porn consumer has choosen for bareback gay porn and this is fact that we cannot ignore. If it would be forbidden to film bb gay porn in the entire USA a majority of the gay porn audience would not go watching condom porn. The trend in viewing bb gay porn is just too strong for that to happen. American studios would film abroad or American gay porn consumers would watch non-American bb gay porn studios like BelAmi.

            Condoms: OHSA in California has taken action against TIM and Jake Cruise and given them substantial fines. Did Sean Cody, based in San Diego, want to run the risk of being the next on the list?

            Lawsuits: these are expensive. Many gay porn companies don’t have the money to go after illegal downloaders. Furthermore: one can ask if these lawsuits deter many people from pirating. According to Corbin Fisher pirating is still the number one threat to the industry. Also: it is relative easy to pirate gay porn totally anonimous. Piracy is a reality and it will be for the foreseeable future. It’s kind of ironic that Sean Cody has been bought by a company that earns money by pirated stuff from others through its tubesites.

          2. You really have it all wrong Reynard… obviously never worked in the business… any kind of business before. Also, not very bright…

          3. You’re long on speculation and short on evidence to back it up.

            Privacy: Your original allegation was that “the kind of models SC is looking for increasingly difficult to find because of privacy issues.” The internet and social media have existed since SC began its operations. And yet SC continues to introduce a new “model” every other day, just as it has been doing year after year after year. Evidently the models SC introduces are precisely the kind SC is looking for, and you have not offered any evidence that finding them is “increasingly difficult.”

            HIV: Where’s the evidence that the pool of models for bareback scenes is shrinking? You speculate that fear of HIV is the reason “some guys who did a solo at SC did not return for action scenes.” We could just as easily speculate that the guy was very straight and unwilling to have sex with another guy for the world to see.

            Scene rates: The pay for sex work has dropped due to increase in the supply of would-be sex workers as more and more straight guys are willing to be G4P due to a change in attitude toward gay sex. Another reason for the drop is an increase in the number of online studios competing for porn customer dollars.

            Bareback: You assert that “the gay porn consumer has choosen for bareback gay porn and this is fact that we cannot ignore,” while ignoring the fact that not all successful gay porn sites offer bareback porn. Studios that offer bareback will likely continue to do so until it ceases to be profitable to do so, and when it does, they will simply change the way they do business, not go out of business.

            Condoms: As I said, studios that offer bareback will likely continue to do so until it ceases to be profitable to do so, and when it does, they will simply change the way they do business, not go out of business.

            Lawsuits: Blah, blah blah. You have no idea how inexpensive it is to sue an illegal downloader. It’s more expensive to be sued and lose than it is to sue and win. Many gay porn companies do have the money to go after illegal downloaders. As for “it’s kind of ironic that Sean Cody has been bought by a company that earns money by pirated stuff from others through its tubesites,” where’s the evidence?

  13. I had heard new voices talking to the guys in one of the recent scenes and wondered whey there were new voices. Now it makes sense.

  14. Curious to know how much Sean Cody received for selling the company. Did he get a few million or double digit millions? Is Sean now so rich he can buy his own island and populate it with models and fuck them all day? Come on, those details are sure to surface. Get cracking, inquiring minds want to know.

    BTW, looks like I’m done viewing SC content, can’t stand Men.com and won’t spend a dime on their lousy content.

  15. I will cry if i see David Brandon Tanner etc paired with Johnny rapid….and becoming involved in ludicrous plots like Human Trafficking ! i think id actually rather watch straight porn .. white stilletos & all lol

    1. Actually I wouldn’t mind seeing crossovers such as Men.com models with Sean Cody models as long as the product remains high.. Men.com does do plots unlike Sean Cody so I would check it out if that aspect transfered over to Sean Cody.. Bel Ami also occasionally does plots and nobody complains about that. Remember the video “Scandal in the Vatican” that actually had footage of Pope Benedict XVI blessing a few Bel Ami models dressed as priests and yet Bel Ami still used the footage despite the Vatican’s objections. It could go either way, be a success or a total bust if crossovers between Sean Cody and Men.com becomes something that is done once or a few times a year.

  16. As they say in English BIRDS OF THE SAME FEATHERS FLOCKED TOGETHER. Maybe Sean Cody has a rare disease or uncurable one so he needed to sell his company. Well that was called KARMA for not giving jobs to your own people. NDS then SC who’s next. LOL

    1. This is the kind of comment that makes gay life and gay people a nightmare to live with and be part of, Sean Cody was a prime example for a studio who gave their customers the kind of quality never matched by anyone, being a professional and a good hard working outfit…”should have given jobs” to “our people”? “bad Karma? You need to broaden your vision on gay sexuality or bi sexuality its all one big gray zone and anyone is allowed to participate and should be celebrated.

      1. I dont need to broaden my vision what I was saying here is a reality that some gay men kept on denying, the truth and unfair treatment of SEAN CODY to his gay models.

  17. Tragic. I have been a fan of Sean Cody from the beginning. Tried Men.com, but the two times I used my card on their site, I found fraudulent charges to some live chat site(a site that was owned by mindgeek). Refuse to ever give them my information again. If I hadn’t been broke at the time I wouldn’t of noticed the second charge. Lucky for me I was counting my pennies. So I guess it’s a fond farewell to Sean Cody. Oddly with the down turn of Corbin Fisher I was really counting on Sean Cody to keep my porn needs satisfied. Guess it’s Belami and Gayhoopla for me. Damn as I type this I’m realizing how truly fucked this news is. Why Gay Porn? Can’t we have something to ourselves, something worth jacking off to…. The end of an era.

  18. Well…this is terrifying. The day I see Brandon (SC) fucking that terrible actor Johnny Rapid (MEN)–Mindgeek gets no more money from me. I just threw-up in my mouth a little.

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