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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Miss Piggy Joins Mickey Mouse
In the further consolidation of kids programming and brand name awareness, The Muppets were sold to Disney. If you have ever been to California Adventure the Muppets in 3D is a neat show.
Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/bu.../18muppet.html
February 18, 2004 NY Times
Kermit and Miss Piggy Join Disney Stable
By BARRY MEIER
The Walt Disney Company said yesterday that it had acquired two of the Jim Henson Company's best-known properties - the Muppets and the Bear in the Big Blue House, for an undisclosed sum. The properties include characters like Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy as well as related film and television library, copyrights and trademarks. It also includes nonexclusive production and consulting agreements for Henson to develop potential new programming featuring the Muppets and the Bear in the Big Blue House for Disney.
"We are honored that the Henson family has agreed to pass on to us the stewardship of these cherished assets," Michael D. Eisner, the chief executive of Disney, said in a statement. The children of Jim Henson bought the company last year for $89 million from EM.TV Merchandising of Munich, which had bought the company in 2000 for about $680 million. At the time, EM.TV was a highflying star of the Frankfurt stock market. When its share price later crashed, the company quickly moved to start selling off the rights to various Henson assets to repay debt. Among those assets were the rights to Henson characters like Elmo and Big Bird, which were sold in 2000 for $180 million to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization in New York that produces "Sesame Street."
As a result, those properties are not part of the Disney deal. Last year, when Henson family members bought back the company, they said they were looking for partners for marketing and distribution deals. In a statement released yesterday, Brian Henson, who with his sister Lisa is co-chairman and co-chief executive of the Jim Henson Company, said they were pleased to have struck a deal with Disney because their father had once explored a sale of the Muppet characters to the company. "Michael Eisner's longstanding passion and respect for the Muppets give me and my family even more confidence in Disney as a partner," Mr. Henson said. The Disney sale is expected to take two months to complete. The Jim Henson Company will retain other company assets, including a film library.
Jim Henson died in 1990 at age 53 of streptococcus pneumonia, a bacterial infection, a day after he was admitted to an emergency room in New York.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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