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Luke
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**** - told ya it wasn't going to be Disney didn't i ? huh huh - and you guys thought i was just the manically insane guy who has the penguin gimmick *evil laugh* 
Seriously, it's not a bad outcome - not the greatest, not the worst and certainly changes won't be as dramatic as if someone like Disney had the Muppets. However, signing a 'letter of intent' is not the end of this sale - it just means EMTV has said 'yeah we itend to sign the sale contract with Valentine', it's a pretty strong indication of what probably will happen but contracts get broken, backers drop out at the last minute, dramatic things can happen and so on. You'll probably find that Valentine now to have to do all the financing stuff in order to complete the contract. At a guess you're probably looking somewhere towards the low end of 40-48 million.
As i said, not a bad deal for both the Muppets & fans. This means that a lot of staff at Henson are safe, as are the facilities unless Valentine goes on some economising drive but i doubt that. While EMTV will have the money to pay their debt, still have the REAL controlling interest in the company and do what they always really wanted to do, just distribute the european shows, it also means that they'll leave the day to day running of the company to actual real television people who've been at the top of their game and will (hopefully) know what they're doing in negotiating new TV and Film contracts, probably direct to video/TV movies like the NBC one but hopefully including theatrical stuff, and also enhancing the profile of the brand through PR. IMHO i think they'll be building on all the great work that was done this year (such as the licensing and Fox/NBC production deals) rather than totally starting from scratch. The only thing to watch out for is the dreaded 'Family' and 'Direct To Video' words - There'll probably be battles between the creative people at Henson and the management over whether the Muppets keep on the 'family' track but with other non-Muppet productions geared towards family audiences too.
As for Rivkin, i'm not sure. Seems like if this goes through he'd either go or become a general manager or something. He was appointed to the position by EMTV and they remain in control so it doesn't automatically mean he leaves until they say so. The article seems to imply the new management team will actually be Henson based though so i guess thats the main thing that'll change at JHC and they'll be in those positions. It doesn't seem to affect the creative team.
Before we start seeing articles on MC about how Disney have lost out on the Muppets yet again, i don't think this is true at all. All anonyfrog sources pointed, all along, to them not being all that interested and not making any real significant moves to aquire Henson other than having a nose around at what might be on offer. The news articles last week were a suprise to many and in general, IMO i don't think it came down to that much of a bidding process where the company was sold to the highest bidder. Some companies signed letters of intent and then EMTV evaluated the options and went for what they thought was the best deal for them which was the one that let them keep the Muppets - of course it doesn't mean they can't sell their stake later on, go bankrupt, buy back the shares in the future etc etc. The real bad thing is that this still leaves plenty of uncertain times ahead for the Henson Company, even more so now that they probably will have split owners.
As for all the PR guff about 'continuing the legacy' you would have got that with any interested buyer, in fact we saw that with EMTV themselves and look what happened there. Things don't look too bad but it's far too early to judge that but i don't see any reason to be angry !
Seriously, it's not a bad outcome - not the greatest, not the worst and certainly changes won't be as dramatic as if someone like Disney had the Muppets. However, signing a 'letter of intent' is not the end of this sale - it just means EMTV has said 'yeah we itend to sign the sale contract with Valentine', it's a pretty strong indication of what probably will happen but contracts get broken, backers drop out at the last minute, dramatic things can happen and so on. You'll probably find that Valentine now to have to do all the financing stuff in order to complete the contract. At a guess you're probably looking somewhere towards the low end of 40-48 million.
As i said, not a bad deal for both the Muppets & fans. This means that a lot of staff at Henson are safe, as are the facilities unless Valentine goes on some economising drive but i doubt that. While EMTV will have the money to pay their debt, still have the REAL controlling interest in the company and do what they always really wanted to do, just distribute the european shows, it also means that they'll leave the day to day running of the company to actual real television people who've been at the top of their game and will (hopefully) know what they're doing in negotiating new TV and Film contracts, probably direct to video/TV movies like the NBC one but hopefully including theatrical stuff, and also enhancing the profile of the brand through PR. IMHO i think they'll be building on all the great work that was done this year (such as the licensing and Fox/NBC production deals) rather than totally starting from scratch. The only thing to watch out for is the dreaded 'Family' and 'Direct To Video' words - There'll probably be battles between the creative people at Henson and the management over whether the Muppets keep on the 'family' track but with other non-Muppet productions geared towards family audiences too.
As for Rivkin, i'm not sure. Seems like if this goes through he'd either go or become a general manager or something. He was appointed to the position by EMTV and they remain in control so it doesn't automatically mean he leaves until they say so. The article seems to imply the new management team will actually be Henson based though so i guess thats the main thing that'll change at JHC and they'll be in those positions. It doesn't seem to affect the creative team.
Before we start seeing articles on MC about how Disney have lost out on the Muppets yet again, i don't think this is true at all. All anonyfrog sources pointed, all along, to them not being all that interested and not making any real significant moves to aquire Henson other than having a nose around at what might be on offer. The news articles last week were a suprise to many and in general, IMO i don't think it came down to that much of a bidding process where the company was sold to the highest bidder. Some companies signed letters of intent and then EMTV evaluated the options and went for what they thought was the best deal for them which was the one that let them keep the Muppets - of course it doesn't mean they can't sell their stake later on, go bankrupt, buy back the shares in the future etc etc. The real bad thing is that this still leaves plenty of uncertain times ahead for the Henson Company, even more so now that they probably will have split owners.
As for all the PR guff about 'continuing the legacy' you would have got that with any interested buyer, in fact we saw that with EMTV themselves and look what happened there. Things don't look too bad but it's far too early to judge that but i don't see any reason to be angry !
) Em.TV could prove very helpful, if they can manage their own financial problems and thus have the time and resources to put into developing the stuff they already own (as opposed to buying everything that comes along). We'll just have to see how this plays out and what happens over the next couple years (it could take time to see real changes). Hopefully JHC, no matter who owns them, will be able to build on the momentum they've worked hard to develop this year. 
