The World's End and Rev producer Big Talk has been bought by ITV for an initial £12.5m in cash, a figure that could rise to £30m depending on the company hitting performance-related earn-out targets over five years.
Big Talk, which was founded in 1995, is 65% owned by Nira Park, Kenton Allen and Matthew Justice.
About 10% of the company is owned by minority shareholders including Simon Pegg and his The World's End, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Spaced collaborators Nick Frost and Edgar Wright.
BBC Worldwide also owns 25% of the company and stands to make between just over £3m and £7.5m on the deal. Big Talk's sale was prompted by the expiry of its five-year deal with the corporation's commercial arm, which is understood to have paid £1.6m for its stake.
Big Talk was understood to be on target to make revenues of close to £22m in the year to the end of June, compared with the £11m recorded in Companies House documents for the previous 12 months.
Other potential suitors for the film and TV producer, which also makes comedies Friday Night Dinners, Him & Her and The Job Lot, are thought to have included Time Warner, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Television, Entertainment One and Shine.
Big Talk's TV output also includes Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm drama A Young Doctor's Notebook and comedy Chickens for Sky. Films produced by the company include Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Attack the Block and Sightseers.
The deal adds Big Talk to ITV's growing portfolio of UK and US production companies. Over the past year the broadcaster has bought Graham Norton's company, So Television, and The Garden, which makes 24 Hours in A&E.
In the US the company has snapped up Gurney Productions, High Noon Entertainment and Thinkfactory Media.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV Studios, said: "Great comedy is an important part of the genre mix for broadcasters around the world and it's fantastic that Big Talk is joining us.
"They have a brilliant track record in creating channel-defining, returning scripted comedy and drama across many different channels, and they are also developing some fantastic new shows that have the potential to travel internationally."
Allen, Big Talk joint chief executive, said: "This marks our next phase of delivering quality comedy and ambitious original drama as we push into the international marketplace and really show the world what we can do."
A BBC Worldwide spokesman said: "We've enjoyed a successful and productive five years with Kenton, Matthew, Nira and the hugely creative team at Big Talk. Although we've now sold our 25% shareholding in the business, we're delighted that we'll continue to work with them through our global distribution rights to Big Talk's back catalogue and any future UK series based on those shows."
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