OnePeople

Hensons Wrest Muppets From German Felons

This is somewhat afield of the usual OnePeople fare, but we're living with a former Henson employee so we're delighted to report that the Jim Henson's family has bought Kermit back from the German licensing company / criminal organization EM.TV.

EM.TV is the film rights arm of KirchMedia, and was a star of Frankfurt's now-defunct Neuer Markt exchange when it bought the Jim Henson Company from the Henson family. After a time, the Haffa brothers who ran EM.TV were found to have decieved their investors and inflated EM.TV's stock price. There are reports that the brothers can't even walk down the streets in Germany for fear of being assaulted by investors. EM.TV tanked, and a furious bidding war began between a number of companies, including Disney and Sony, for control of the Henson properties.

In the end, the family was able to buy the company back for US$89M, a far cry from the US$690M that it sold for in February 2000. Don't think that the family suddenly made half a billion dollars, though -- much of initial deal was in EM.TV stock, which is now less than worthless.