It was announced that Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, and his four siblings have signed a definitive agreement to acquire The Jim Henson Company from EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $78 million, plus available cash of the company, which is currently $11 million. Debevoise & Plimpton represented the Henson family in this transaction. (Debevoise also represented the Henson family in the sale of the company to EM. TV in March 2000.)
Assets of The Jim Henson Company to be acquired in the transaction include: The Muppets, The Muppet Babies, The Fraggles, The Hoobs, Farscape and Bear in the Big Blue House. The company’s principal operations include: Henson Television, Jim Henson Pictures, Jim Henson Interactive, Jim Henson Home Entertainment, the Henson Recording Studio and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.™
The Debevoise team was led from New York by Corporate partners Michael Gillespie and Kevin Schmidt, Corporate associates Steven Wayland, Erlyne Josma, Stefan Stauder and Purvi Shah, Tax Partner Andrew Berg, Tax associate Vadim Mahmoudov, Employee Benefits associates Alan Levine and Lindsay Blanco and Intellectual Property associate Shari-Rabiner Gordon. Our Frankfurt and London offices also played an important role in the transaction, with partner Thomas Schuerrle and associate Elisabeth Huber-Sorge in Frankfurt and associates John Morgan, Elliot Wiseman and Payal Anand in London.
