Another perspective on Henson sale from Variety

[Luke]

Originally posted by BoyRaisin2
I know, somehow in late fall of 2001 back on the Delphi board, it was said by someone that Disney was definitely going to buy JHC and that Eisner was bound to make the announcement any day. While I loved that idea, there was really no article or press release to back that up, just the world inside Muppet Central Forum.

Who was that ? Are you sure you aren't referring to the 'Broadcast' article which said that Henson would be sold to someone within the next two weeks. That was kinda true - Henson have been expecting the sale to happen many times in the past but deals have never worked out. They've actually expected the current sale to be finalised first back in July and then at the end of October but most of the staff are left pretty much in the dark aside from Rivkin - the whole things being handled away from JHC. There's a heck of a lot of inside gossip and rumor that doesn't get reported at 'Muppet Central' - we just seem to be told about articles and press releases which is fine and a bit more credible but also rather boring as it seems like nothing is happening for months on end.

In answer to Frogboy on the 180 - while i would like Disney to own Henson (although i'm sure there would be raised eyebrows at JHC) and feel it's one of the best ways forward to them i don't have a massive belief that they will swoop down at the end of the auction like Superman and buy the company. It's unlikely to happen that way - the only way i see a Disney bid is if they've been negotiating with Allen & Co to be included in the bidding all this time and it's just been kept quiet. I have a feeling that with the current strategy at Disney though the board would like them to sort out their internal stuff first before making more aquisitions, especially this one which would be taking on another company with fairly large problems.

I think there's a strong possibilty Disney MIGHT be involved in one of the other bids, most probably Saban. A lot of these companies aren't really involved with media production and they need that - someone like Saban would not be bidding unless he ALREADY had handshakes on co-production or licensing deals with another partner in the media otherwise he'd lose money fast. A couple of the bidders have strong Disney connections so the mouse might be the first (but not only) port of call. Disney may well have a small interest in using the Muppet brand for some shows, movies or themepark attractions but they don't neccasarily need to own them to do that, and if it's more in their interests to sit on the sideline and not bid then thats exactly what they'll do. Obviously things can change, the price and terms of the sale can rise and fall daily with bidders dropping in and out all the time but i don't think a last minute Disney bid is a strong possibility which is why i scoff at cryptic uninformed articles that struggle to find any excuse for Disney interest in Henson - to be truthful there's not a great lot of it there and if Disney really wanted to aquire Henson there's been plenty of opportunities for them to do so already and no need to cozy up to Muppeteers, Henson or other German companies.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Originally posted by Luke
Who was that ? Are you sure you aren't referring to the 'Broadcast' article which said that Henson would be sold to someone within the next two weeks. That was kinda true - Henson have been expecting the sale to happen many times in the past but deals have never worked out. They've actually expected the current sale to be finalised first back in July and then at the end of October but most of the staff are left pretty much in the dark aside from Rivkin - the whole things being handled away from JHC.

Well, yes, there was that mysterious "Broadcast" article that you posted 2 or 3 days after Disney bought Fox Family, but it seemed that sometime later in the fall that there was this "talk" that Disney was probably most likely to buy Henson at any moment. Just waiting for an announcement. I don't know, I have to check the board again. I don't know if 9/11, the weakening economy, or virtually every company's financial problems affected this whole Muppet drama, but hopefully it will all come to an end when one of these cheap (in a sense) investment/licensing companies--uck--buy The Jim Henson Company.