Mickey Courts the Muppets

[BoyRaisin2]

To start: With this, my 332nd post, I have finally reached (1.00 posts per day) on my profile. At this rate I'll be a senior member by 2006! Looking forward to that.

Moving on...

It's funny 'cause in the past I've always said if there was ONE part of Henson I wanted to buy, if I couldn't have the whole company, was just the library of all the stuff Henson's made up 'til now (or '90 at best). Now I want the Creature Shop 'cause, since it's free, I could own a company that's makes cool creatures and special effects. I should break my piggy bank for that. Hmm, idea.

So my 7-year-dream of Disney buying the Muppets may (emphasis on MAY) come true, but could very well mean the end of the Jim Henson Co., but not the Muppets, as well. Heavy...

This is, for me, a very very soft-core version of the Iraq crisis. Things may change for better or worse.

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by BoyRaisin2
Wait, one more thing, we mentioned JHC's NY office and workshop earlier, you think their London office (which houses the Creature Shop) and the Chaplin lot (which the family bought) would share the same fate?

I think the London office might be sold off with the Creature Shop seeing as it's the main place for that work, either that or EMTV will just use it as the London base for their operations, they already have management offices in there now. Chaplin would just be sold off or rented out to someone else by the Henson children - it has nothing to do with JHC/EMTV. It's strange they never do anything 'Muppety' there - they seem to make more money renting it out to music artists.

Yeah i agree with Jamie and what he said - i think he's completely right. I bet all along people from Disney have dropped hints they don't want the company but they'll take the Muppets alone if they're cheap enough. Most likely why we got all those reports before. EMTV while they had other bidders probably rejected this and insisted it was the whole company only. Then when things get desperate and they need the money with little chance of it coming elsewhere Disney pressure them to sell 'The Muppets' on their own cheaply and they get what they want. Typical stuff from a big media corporation. *sigh*

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Originally posted by Luke
Yeah i agree with Jamie and what he said - i think he's completely right. I bet all along people from Disney have dropped hints they don't want the company but they'll take the Muppets alone if they're cheap enough. Most likely why we got all those reports before. EMTV while they had other bidders probably rejected this and insisted it was the whole company only. Then when things get desperate and they need the money with little chance of it coming elsewhere Disney pressure them to sell 'The Muppets' on their own cheaply and they get what they want. Typical stuff from a big media corporation. *sigh*

This is a theory, right? It just doesn't seem likely, especially after all this time.

 

[frogboy4]

I wouldn't say that they are not interested in the company. It's a powerful brand and Disney has bought other companies (Miramax) and I think they'd want to get the Henson Company if they could. They'd probably strip it down to a skeleton crew, but isn't that how it is already?

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by frogboy4
It's a powerful brand and Disney has bought other companies (Miramax) and I think they'd want to get the Henson Company if they could.

Yeah but the brand is 'The Muppets', Henson without the Creature Shop OR The Muppets is pretty much worthless right now. There is little else in production even in Europe and the distribution for things like Fraggle and Dinosaurs are now done by EMTV in Germany and not Henson anyway. I'd say they have no need to buy the company to get what they want. In fact the company would just be a liability to them - all the Germany problems to sort out, staff on contract, merchandising contracts to take over when they really want to use their own people, buildings to run - they simply don't need that to have 'The Muppets' onboard at Disney. They've got other facilities and i wouldn't expect Disney to run them as a 100% active brand anyway so they wouldn't need dedicated offices and things - i'd expect Diz to bring them in and out of the public every now and again for movies and programmes like WB do with Scooby Doo etc. I'd bet my bottom dollar that this is what Disney want and a lot of the wrangling over the last years has been focused on this, with EMTV desperately trying to find another way (Valentine, Saban, Classic Media). From what i've heard, the Disney deal sounds like the same one Entertainment Rights wanted and they didn't bid for the same reason.

It's just no surprise to me that this Disney deal has come back to the front of the queue now things are getting more desperate and bidders for the Henson Company are scarce. If Disney really wanted Henson they would have bought the entire company a while back or at least been in on the bidding process for it before Valentine managed to get an exclusive negotiation deal - maybe if they could pick up JHC for the same amount they are offering for 'The Muppets' they'd take it but i don't see EMTV letting the entire 'Jim Henson Company' go for $70 Million - if things were that desperate they'd be better off going with one of the minority stake deals for $30-$35 million and standing a chance of getting some more income from all the rights in the future as well as paying off the money they owe.

We'll see, but i think the Reuters article was probably the most accurate one.

 

[frogboy4]

I understand but disagree with most of what you said. I still think they'd want the company in name.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Yeah, that whole scenario does seem a little far-fetched. I would imagine that Disney's been trying to get the whole "Jim Henson Company" than just the core brand "The Muppets" for the past two years. That may have changed now, but I really doubt that's been the case the whole time.

But anyway, with Disney's offer for the characters AND the library (which is the crown jewel to me), Disney would still have the rights to them in the US, UK, and elsewhere, correct? I ask that 'cause EM.TV takes care of those in Germany, but in 2001 there was that article "The Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock won't belong to EM.TV until 2050" because Kirch owns them. Will any of whatever I just said factor into this?

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by frogboy4
I understand but disagree with most of what you said. I still think they'd want the company in name.

Yeah i'm sure they'd like the company name, or at least the 'Jim Henson' name but i'm saying it isn't essential for them. If Disney were to buy 'The Jim Henson Company' do you really see them, in their present state, putting all the money and resources into keeping the staff, offices, programme and licensing contracts and running it as it is now ? I think that's really unlikely - Eisner's strategy presented to the board was to focus on sorting out the companies internal problems than taking on external commitments. If that's correct they'd either just buy 'The Muppets' or buy 'The Jim Henson Company' and strip it down and just incorporate it into Disney which would have pretty much the same outcome. It might not be so bad an outcome for the fans because we'd see better stuff, just not so often - but either of those outcomes would be lose-lose for the people at Henson.


Boyraisin :-

Whether or not they've had ambitions to buy the whole 'Jim Henson Company' over the past few years, it doesn't seem to be one they've actually pitched to Henson. I would think the option of just getting 'The Muppets' has always been on the drawing board as an alternative option they might go for. These kind of deals are very common in media now.

 

[frogboy4]

As I said - I think they still want to keep the company in name. I don't think they'd keep an enormous staff. Maybe just a few figureheads. Sure, they don't need it, but it's definitely something that they would want and spend time negotiating.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Where do you think Charles Rivkin would be in all this?

Also, IF "Farscape" actually were to continue, as well as the other "Farscape" projects, could Jim Henson Television/Pictures still be able to produce them? And if they could, could the Creature Shop still be involved?

Just trying to cover all the bases.