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Peanuts to be Majority Owned by Sony

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Todd Spangler for Variety reports:

Sony is paying more than a few peanuts to get majority ownership of Charles M. Schulz’s beloved Peanuts franchise featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown and more.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) announced that they entered into a definitive agreement with Canadian media company WildBrain to indirectly acquire all of the 41% stake held by WildBrain in Peanuts Holdings LLC.

Sony will pay CAN $630 million to WildBrain for the 41% stake, or roughly [US] $457 million. The closing of the transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

© Peanuts Worldwide

From Mark Sweney at The Guardian:

The Japanese conglomerate has bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the intellectual property Schulz created, from the Canadian children’s entertainment company WildBrain.

The deal raises Sony’s total stake, which it began building in 2018, to 80%. The Schulz family owns the remaining 20%.

© Peanuts Worldwide

And from our go-to Peanuts expert Nat Gertler at The Aaugh Blog:

For those who like to keep track on big picture Peanuts business, there’s been a shift in ownership of Peanuts Holdings LLC, the owners of the key Peanuts intellectual property. Since 2018, the ownership has been split between the Schulz family, who owned 20%; WildBrain, who owned 41%, and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, who owned 39% [emphasis added]. Today it was announced (and covered in major sources) that Sony was buying out WildBrain’s share, giving them 80%. WildBrain will still be involved in the Peanuts business, creating animation and doing licensing.) Price was $453 million, giving an effective valuation to Peanuts as a whole north of a billion bucks.

As Nat tells us nobody currently had controlling interest until now.

Anyway, Peanuts has been in this situation before. From 2010 to 2017, Iconix owned 80% of the Peanuts property holder, and then they sold that 80% to WildBrain (then named DHX Media), who held onto all of that for a year before selling almost half of their share to Sony. I don’t recall any vast disasters happening there.

Price was $453 million, giving an effective valuation to Peanuts as a whole north of a billion bucks.

So, if my arithmetic holds, a one percent share of Peanuts would be a few dollars over $11,500,00.00 (US).

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Comments 13

  2. *swears like Charlie Brown’s parents*

  3. Use of the word “Now” is premature, correct? Is it a done deal?

    1. I changed the headline though it is, for all intents and purposes, a done deal.

  5. What do you suppose this means for the future of the Peanuts brand? Do you suppose this will cause anything odd to happen in the Peanuts Special-Apple deal which is good until 2030, I think?

  6. What about Shulz’s widow and descendants? How much did they still own?

    1. “The Schulz family owns the remaining 20%.”

  7. Judging from the massive quantity of Peanuts merchandise that shows up on German store shelves (all year long, not just during the holiday season), Sony’s investment is a sure bet to produce a profitable return. The original comic strip is virtually unknown here (German papers do not have a comics section, and only print isolated random strips, typically as space fillers). A typical German might be able to name Snoopy and possibly Charlie Brown, but it is rare to find a fan who could name even one of the other characters.

    1. P.S. Nevertheless, the merchandise keeps appearing, and must be selling well, because stores keep stocking it.

  8. I wish Peanuts specials aired on TV again – Maybe Antenna TV or Rewind TV or MeTV Toons could air “A Charlie Brown Christmas” starting in 2026?

    1. MeTV has run some of the non-Christmas ones in the past, like the spelling bee one.

    2. If the rights were sold to a broadcast or cable channel again, they would probably want a lot of money. I’m not convinced any of these actually have the kind of money for that.

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