Sony collars Snoopy in £340m deal to take management of Peanuts franchise

[ad_1] Sony has taken management of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise together with Snoopy and Charlie Brown in a deal price C$630m (£340m).

The Japanese conglomerate has purchased 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the mental property Schulz created, from the Canadian kids’s leisure firm WildBrain.

The deal raises Sony’s whole stake, which it started constructing in 2018, to 80%. The Schulz household owns the remaining 20%.

Peanuts, which first appeared as a comic book strip in seven newspapers in 1950 and ran day by day till the cartoonist’s demise in 2000, has gone on to grow to be a worldwide franchise spanning TV, toys, movies and theme park points of interest.

In October, Apple TV+ introduced an extension of its deal because the unique streaming residence for Peanuts till 2030, which incorporates the manufacturing of a brand new Snoopy and Charlie Brown animated characteristic movie.

twentieth Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios produced The Peanuts Film in 2015.

Sony, whose empire spans movie, tv, music, gaming and electronics, has been bolstering its push into leisure and authentic content material in recent times.

The corporate achieved vital success with the hit TV collection The Final of Us, which was tailored from a well-liked PlayStation recreation.

Within the UK, Sony owns, or has majority management of the TV manufacturing firms behind collection together with Downton Abbey, Outlander, Business and His Darkish Supplies. Its movie studio, Sony Footage, is behind franchises together with Spider-Man and Venom, and Sony Music is residence to international artists together with Beyoncé, Adele and Pink Floyd.

“With this extra possession stake we're thrilled to have the ability to additional elevate the worth of the Peanuts model by drawing on Sony Group’s in depth international community and collective experience,” mentioned Shunsuke Muramatsu, the chief government of Sony Music Leisure.

“We're deeply dedicated to carrying ahead the legacy of Charles Schulz and the Schulz household.”

Sony mentioned the publicly listed WildBrain could be retained below a multi-year service association to deal with licensing, manufacturing and distribution referring to the Peanuts franchise.

WildBrain, which acquired its 80% stake within the Peanuts franchise in 2017, additionally owns mental property rights to franchises together with Strawberry Shortcake, Teletubbies, Degrassi and Inspector Gadget.