Cutbacks at Henson NY

[BlueFrackle]

Hey Guys,
I got some sad and bad news about the Company yesterday...

They just laid off half of the New York Office, Including most of the Licensing Department and the Head of Licensing.

It seems like the Henson kids are cutting back on costs, They got rid of people who had been there for Thirty plus years.


So thats some more sad news, Will things get better?

 

[Luke]

Thats really bad news Warrick - i imagine they are really needing to cut back because EMTV are going to take all their liquid assets (spare cash) over the next week or so and they have little coming in for quite a while. Things should get better as hopefully a few licensing and production deals should get signed once the kids are in control - i would think this decision was one from the current JHC management. Perhaps scaling back the licensing department (which has obviously been succesful lately) could be a move towards them hiring an independant company to do it ? I dunno.

 

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

It could be EMTV making the cuts, and not the Henson kids.

 

[frogboy4]

Is the licensing dept in charge of making Miss Piggy's hair yellow and Gonzo's nose blue?

 

[Luke]

It could be EMTV making the cuts, and not the Henson kids.

Dunno - depends exactly when these cuts were made, if it was a while back then yeah maybe EMTV decided to cut the staff in the final months but if it's recent i'd say it's probably more a decision by the current JHC management (Rivkin) in consultation with the Henson kids. If these people would have had to be cut anyway then it makes sense to make them redundant under EMTV rather than under the Henson Kids as they'll be paid off with the money that EMTV would have been getting once the sale was complete anyway so this could all be nifty forward planning. One criticism of the Henson company has always been that the staff is bloated and they occupy too much space so who knows, maybe more cuts are to come and they'll just move out of NY and into Chaplin completely or vice versa. I'm sorry for those who have lost jobs but it's no wonder JHC has been losing money, for such a small indie all they need is the basic office and production staff, then just hire in the other facilities as and when they need them. For things like licensing and interactive there are plenty of good external companies who could be hired to take that work on, maybe they can even get hold of the correct dye shade from Piggy's hairdresser even !

 

[beaker]

Well I hope they keep everyone cut recently and from the puppet builders on file, to rehire at a later time.

Isnt it weird to think of JHC as this small indie company(or, as I so callously referred to last fall as a broom closet with a water cooler,ping pongballs, and fleece)

I personally believe the Muppets(Muppet Show, international Sesame, etc) has a much greater global recognizability than Mickey and Disney, yet JHC is this small indie company in some NY offices. Just interesting when ya think about it...but hopefully from such a small stronghold great things can emerge.

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I hate to be negative but I had this really awful thought. What if the henson company went totally broke and lost everything and they were never seen again and nothing new was made and no new products etc.
We would all have to band together to stop it and save this great company, if anything like that happened that is. I hope that everything goes well for the company and the Henson kids.

Did the henson kids have anything to do with the muppets or have any say in anything when the German EMTV company owned JHC?

Does EMTV get all the licencing profits etc for the palisades toys along with other products during the 25th anniversary etc?

I could be totally confused in saying any of this!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Is the licensing dept in charge of making Miss Piggy's hair yellow and Gonzo's nose blue?

Uh-oh!! Is someone about to make an example of why it might NOT be a bad thing?

Just kiddin'!!

It's always bad when folks lose their jobs; but, after a bit they might all get their jobs back after the Henson Five get back in control.

 

[Luke]

What if the henson company went totally broke and lost everything and they were never seen again and nothing new was made and no new products etc.

If the Henson Company wouldn't have been bought back by the kids then there was a real risk of EMTV not being able to stay afloat much longer and it's very probable that Henson could have gone down with EMTV, or if not that, ended up split up or sold off cheap to a company who didn't have their best interests at heart. EMTV will end up with any money not already spent from the Palisades licensing deal, all the anniversary licensing deals, the Muppet Babies licensing deals and got all the money from TV programme and movie distribution which they controlled directly. Lisa Henson stayed at JHC while EMTV owned the company and Brian was there too - the other kids also are part of the 'Henson Legacy' which had offices at JHC for part of the time so yes they were around, but no, they weren't in any control. When the Henson kids regain control, EMTV will also (as part of the deal) take all of JHC's liquid assets (ie :- empty their bank account) and it will be upto the new owners to fund operations.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Hmmm...this doesn't seem good to me, but is still going in a positive direction somehow.

I wish I knew who was directly responsible for the sale to EM.TV, I think I still need to thwack them on the back of the head with a rubber chicken.