Sony Buys Charlie Brown and Snoopy

The power of brands continues to enthrall Hollywood.

In a late-in-the-year deal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan have taken a significant stake in Peanuts Holding LLC, the company that controls the intellectual property rights of the beloved characters created by Charles M. Schulz such as Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The purchase price was disclosed as about $460 million for the stake sale.

Sony has acquired all of the approximately 41 percent stake held by WildBrain, a Canadian kids and family entertainment company.

According to the announcement, the resulting deal will see Sony, which already had a stake in the venture, owning 80 percent of Peanuts Holdings. Members of the Schulz family will continue to own the remaining 20 percent.

“Since 2018, SMEJ has been proud to be part of the partnership behind Peanuts, an iconic global entertainment brand with a 75-year legacy of delighting audiences worldwide,” said Shunsuke Muramatsu, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) president and group CEO. “With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the Peanuts brand by drawing on the Sony Group’s extensive global network and collective expertise.”

The exec added, “We are deeply committed to carrying forward the legacy of Charles Schulz and the Schulz family. Together with SPE, and backed by WildBrain’s continued partnership, we will continue to embrace new opportunities to ensure that Peanuts remains a relevant and beloved presence across generations, reaching new audiences and sharing the timeless charm of the Peanuts gang for years ahead.”

Sony will now focus on keeping the characters in the public eye and building up the brand.

“With our combined strengths, we have the unique capability and extraordinary opportunity to protect and shape the future of these beloved characters for generations to come,” said Sony Pictures President and CEO Ravi Ahuja.

Schulz’s Peanuts became an American institution in the 20th Century thanks to a daily comic strip that ran for 50 years, ending only with his death in 2000.

It moved beyond the four panel walls with seminal cartoon specials A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown that played year after year on network TV, cementing Peanuts’ status in the pop culture firmament.

20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios previously produced The Peanuts Movie, a 2015 feature that was well-regarded and ended a major screen drought for Charlie Brown.

WildBrain had been keeping aspects of the IP alive with animated series Snoopy in Space and The Snoopy Show in recent years.