Eisner confirms Disney could buy Henson and Muppets soon

[Phillip]

Disney could buy Henson and Muppets soon

Eisner confirms Disney's interest and says the buyout could happen soon.

http://www.muppetcentral.com/news/2003/031903.shtml

 

[radionate]

Woo Hoo!

 

[kansasteen14]

I think this sounds great, but it is kind of insulting he said they werent worth 100 mill.

 

[Luke]

That's interesting, but they're just off the cuff comments. We already know that stuff is happening between Disney and Henson. It doesn't really give a CLEAR definitive indication whether he is talking about 'Henson' or 'The Muppets' - that just seems to be assumed by Reuters in the headline but the questions seems to have been asked and answered in an informal manner. The point asking whether Disney would be prepared to pay between $100-$200 million is interesting because thats the price you would expect 'The Henson Company' to go for, and $70 million would be a good price for 'The Muppets' brand to go for - so you gotta wonder whether EMTV are just really desperate and are taking an incredibly low price for the Henson Company or whether certain parts of the company are being left out of any possible Disney deal.

I don't think too much should be read into Eisner commenting on the Muppets - it was at the annual meeting and he was asked by a shareholder about a company aquisition, in that scenario he couldn't really not say what he did. However it does look very good indeed for Disney. It probably all comes down to time now - EMTV need a small amount of money by a deadline, if Disney can get their act together maybe they'll come out the winner, but still time for someone like Valentine to come back in with another co-partnership deal that guarantee's EMTV the money they need.

 

[Bean Bunny]

 

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

Finally, Im just anxious for it to happen now !

I just know that The Muppets will be in good hands with Disney to back em up.
Then Henson can get back on track, And not have to worry about an unstable company owning them !

'I want muppets for disney dont you, kermit and mickey wants it too!'

I never thought id be saying that !

LOL!



Throws a Penguin !

 

[frogboy4]

Of course he's low-balling the price. That's what businessmen do and that's what it's all about. I just think it's sad how far they have fallen from the original Disney asking price. I belive the final price will be just under 100 million.

 

[trekkie1701E]

Disney's Muppets.

How wierd does that sound?

Not my first choice. But at least we won't have any cheap Sabean cursed muppet shows aka Ninja Turtles the television series or the horrid new Power Rangers (As if the original isn't bad enough).

 

[ButchCat]

Well I'm not happy at all.

 

[Luke]

Re: Guys,

Originally posted by Warrick
Then Henson can get back on track, And not have to worry about an unstable company owning them !

Warrick, you talk like Disney will buy JHC and sink tons of money into it and everything will be the same and happy. Seriously dude, thats being incredibly optimistic - there's about 2% chance of that actually happening. Depends entirely what Disney want out of this - they could just close all the offices and pretty much incorporate the company into their own, or they could split up different parts of it, even just ditch the JHC people and only bring the Muppets out every now and again (depending on how much they pay - if they don't get em cheap likely they'd have to make em work regularly). The current stance hasn't been working at Henson - i think Disney would be even more hardline than EMTV are right now. The Valentine deal was probably the best one by far - there are far more dangers with Disney than Henson not being owned by an instable company - sooner or later with Disney there's a high chance there wouldn't even be a Jim Henson Company in anything but name.

Seriously, people gotta wake up, it isn't always as straight forward as you might think - especially not when EMTV couldn't find anyone else to buy JHC, there is something about all this that isn't right.