Japanese electronics giant Sony has officially taken majority control of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise. The acquisition is valued at £340 million (~RM1.86 billion), and includes two of the franchise’s most popular characters, Snoopy and Charlie Brown.
Sony reportedly bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings from WildBrain, the Canadian children’s entertainment company. In doing so, it raises Sony’s stake in the Peanuts franchise to 80%. The Shulz family owns the remaining 20%.
“With this additional ownership stake we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the Peanuts brand by drawing on Sony Group’s extensive global network and collective expertise,” Shunsuke Muramatsu, the chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment, said.
The acquisition is indicative of a larger scheme by the PlayStation owner; it began its acquisition of the Snoopy company back in 2018. The first comic appeared back in the 1950s, and continued until Schulz’s death in 2000. Since then, the franchise has become global and spanned TV, toys, films, and theme park attractions. In 2015, the Peanuts Movie made its debut, but that was made by 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios at the time.
With the Peanuts franchise now squarely under its belt, it is likely that any company looking to use the IP, be it for film or merchandising, will now have to pay Sony, as well as the Schulz family, a licensing fee before they can do so. For that matter, we can also expect Sony to begin working on new shows, with Snoopy and Charlie Brown at the forefront.
(Source: The Guardian)
