Peanuts ain`t peanuts

[tth2]

Peanuts gang sold to owner of Joe Boxer for $175M

 

CINCINNATI – You've got a new owner, Charlie Brown.

 

E.W. Scripps Co. is selling the unit that owns the rights to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang for $175 million to Iconix Brand Group Inc.

 

The sale of United Media Licensing also means Iconix has a new partnership with the family of the late Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. They'll receive 20 percent ownership and pay that percentage of the sale price.

 

Scripps said Tuesday the cash deal will close by the end of the second quarter.

 

The newspaper publisher and TV station owner had been exploring a sale since February.

 

The Peanuts brand has annual sales of more than $2 billion.

 

Iconix owns and licenses brands such as Joe Boxer, London Fog, Starter and Mudd.

 

 

 

[paperheart]

Peanuts gang sold to owner of Joe Boxer for $175M

 

CINCINNATI – You've got a new owner, Charlie Brown.

 

E.W. Scripps Co. is selling the unit that owns the rights to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang for $175 million to Iconix Brand Group Inc.

 

The sale of United Media Licensing also means Iconix has a new partnership with the family of the late Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. They'll receive 20 percent ownership and pay that percentage of the sale price.

 

Scripps said Tuesday the cash deal will close by the end of the second quarter.

 

The newspaper publisher and TV station owner had been exploring a sale since February.

 

The Peanuts brand has annual sales of more than $2 billion.

 

Iconix owns and licenses brands such as Joe Boxer, London Fog, Starter and Mudd.

 

 

 

wow- is that right?

[mica]

wow- is that right?

Well the MetLife stuff, the Whitman candy samplers with snoopy figurines, Birthday cards, and the other day my son got some Peanuts playing cards. There's probably more.

[seanfingh]

Peanuts gang sold to owner of Joe Boxer for $175M

 

CINCINNATI – You've got a new owner, Charlie Brown.

 

E.W. Scripps Co. is selling the unit that owns the rights to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang for $175 million to Iconix Brand Group Inc.

 

The sale of United Media Licensing also means Iconix has a new partnership with the family of the late Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. They'll receive 20 percent ownership and pay that percentage of the sale price.

 

Scripps said Tuesday the cash deal will close by the end of the second quarter.

 

The newspaper publisher and TV station owner had been exploring a sale since February.

 

The Peanuts brand has annual sales of more than $2 billion.

 

Iconix owns and licenses brands such as Joe Boxer, London Fog, Starter and Mudd.

 

 

 

wow- is that right?

 

There has to be some kind of disconnect in this story somewhere. Why would anyone sell an asset generating 2 billy a year for 175 million?

[RedFury]

Well, you can have sales of $2 billion and still lose money. Doesn't say what the profits are.

 

But in this case they're really just licensing the characters, so they should get their piece of the pie regardless. And I'd guess that the licensing fees on $2 billion in sales would have to be at least $100 million. So yeah, if you're generating that much each year, why sell for only $175 m?

[seanfingh]

Well, you can have sales of $2 billion and still lose money. Doesn't say what the profits are.

 

But in this case they're really just licensing the characters, so they should get their piece of the pie regardless. And I'd guess that the licensing fees on $2 billion in sales would have to be at least $100 million. So yeah, if you're generating that much each year, why sell for only $175 m?

 

That's exactly my point. The story is making it sound as though the Peanuts brand itself is generating 2 billion, not products that have licensed the Peanuts brand. Who knows what the story means but real facts will likely make more sense than this story does.

[Bronty]

it just says it sold the unit that owns snoop for 175m.... even if snoopy makes a truckload every year we have no idea what kind of liabilities are being included as part of the deal, etc.

[Wally's Comics]

GOOD GRIEF!

 

 

 

 

[alecholland]

The company I work for just finished creating a line of die-cut bookmarks for the Schulz Museum. We had to put the UFS copyright on everything. I wonder if we will have to revise the designs with new copyright info.

[comicwiz]

No they ain't - if you didn't catch Antiques Roadshow this past week, here is the segment on some original artwork a lady brought in to have appraised.

[the blob]

Well, you can have sales of $2 billion and still lose money. Doesn't say what the profits are.

 

But in this case they're really just licensing the characters, so they should get their piece of the pie regardless. And I'd guess that the licensing fees on $2 billion in sales would have to be at least $100 million. So yeah, if you're generating that much each year, why sell for only $175 m?

 

That's exactly my point. The story is making it sound as though the Peanuts brand itself is generating 2 billion, not products that have licensed the Peanuts brand. Who knows what the story means but real facts will likely make more sense than this story does.

 

I can't fathom it generates $2 billion annually. With that said, let's say Scripps has to pay 50% or more of all their licensing fees back to the estate? Even then $2 billion doesn't make sense.

[shadroch]

Royalties can sometimes be pennies on the dollar. I don't know what they get now, but in 1987, Major League Baseball,which is a much bigger brand than Peanuts, was getting six percent of the wholesale price of an item. Menudo, which was at the top of its game back then got three cents on the wholesale price.

The nice thing about royalties is it is almost impossible to lose money on them, as long as you are careful about who gets the license

If Peanuts owners got 5% of wholesale sales and it generate 2 billion in retail sales- lets call in 1.3 billion in wholesale figures, that comes to about 65 million a year, so it sold for 2 1/2 times pretax earnings.

Those are just off the top of the head figures, but that seems to be a fairly respectable chunk of change.

[Bruce1971]

Royalties can sometimes be pennies on the dollar. I don't know what they get now, but in 1987, Major League Baseball,which is a much bigger brand than Peanuts, was getting six percent of the wholesale price of an item. Menudo, which was at the top of its game back then got three cents on the wholesale price.

The nice thing about royalties is it is almost impossible to lose money on them, as long as you are careful about who gets the license

If Peanuts owners got 5% of wholesale sales and it generate 2 billion in retail sales- lets call in 1.3 billion in wholesale figures, that comes to about 65 million a year, so it sold for 2 1/2 times pretax earnings.

Those are just off the top of the head figures, but that seems to be a fairly respectable chunk of change.

 

Im going to guess they paid at least 7-10 times earnings and would expect a few more times earning is the real price. The above talk about 2.5 times pretax earning is wishful thinking. If it sold for anything close to a cheap price I am sure someone like Disney would have scooped up this property.

 

Bruce

[shadroch]

Thats quite possible. My point really was more that having sales of $2 billion doesn't mean they have royalties anywhere near $100 million. I wouldn't be surprised if the income was closer to $25 million than the figures I projected.