Muppets join Disney's world
Kermit, Miss Piggy and other characters acquired in $90 million deal.
By Meg James | Los Angeles Times
Posted February 18, 2004
Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner insists that he has no puppets on the board of directors. But he bought a bunch of them on Tuesday for the company.
The entertainment company announced that it had sealed a deal -- worth about $90 million -- to acquire the Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, from the Jim Henson Co.
Executives at both companies dismissed any notion that the Muppet acquisition, or even its timing, was in response to Comcast Corp.'s unsolicited bid for Disney last week.
After all, the Muppet negotiations had been going on for six months, and the size of the transaction was hardly big enough to make it a "poison pill" that could fend off the advances of the cable giant.
Instead, executives said the deal represents a harmonious Hollywood union between the family of the late, legendary creator Jim Henson and a company known for its marketing muscle with characters such as Winnie the Pooh, Pluto and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
"Disney is a great company and a great home for the Muppets," said Lisa Henson, co-chief executive of the Hollywood-based Henson Co. "This is a deal that was a long time coming -- nearly 14 years."
Jim Henson had been working on a deal to sell the characters to Disney for about $150 million in 1990. But that deal unraveled with Henson's unexpected death that year.
Tuesday's acquisition offered Eisner an opportunity to focus on some good news. He has been under fire in recent months by critics who allege, among other things, that the board of directors isn't independent enough.
"Since the time I worked with Jim Henson on the first Muppets TV special in the 1960s, it was obvious to me that his characters would make a deep imprint on the hearts of families worldwide," Eisner said in a statement.
Disney also acquired the rights to the Bear in the Big Blue House and that library of television shows. Tuesday's deal does not include Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Big Bird or the other residents of Sesame Street. Those characters are owned by Sesame Workshop.
The deal allows the Henson company to develop new shows for Disney that feature the Muppets or characters from Bear in the Big Blue House. Separately, Disney is also planning to relaunch the Muppets with new movies, DVDs, a TV series and theme-park attractions.
The Disney and Henson companies also collaborated on two movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992 and The Muppet Treasure Island in 1996.
Henson's five children sold the company in February 2000 to the German media company
EM.TV for $680 million in the hopes that the maturing franchise would be revived. Instead, the German firm became handcuffed with debt from other acquisitions. The Hensons bought the company back last year.
The Muppets are "culturally significant" creations, said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of media and popular culture. But he cautioned that the "Muppets that pack a cultural wallop are the ones over on Sesame Street," which are not included in the deal.
"Kermit and Miss Piggy, I'm not sure how much longer those are going to be relevant characters," Thompson said. "They were huge in the '70s and '80s, but I'm not sure we're going to be celebrating Kermit's 75th birthday the way we just did" with Mickey Mouse.
Richard Verrier and Todd Pack of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Meg James is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
