October Films was a major U.S. independent film production company and distributor founded in 1991 by Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky as a means of distributing the 1990 film Life Is Sweet. A series of mergers and acquisitions began when Universal Pictures (then a division of the Seagram Company) bought a majority stake in October Films in 1997. Universal then sold its shares to Barry Diller in 1999, who renamed the company USA Films and merged it with Gramercy Pictures. Vivendi then acquired USA Films, who in 2002 acquired Good Machine and merged it with USA Films, forming Focus Features.