Iconix Brand Group Inc. is selling Snoopy's Peanuts brand to DHX Media Ltd. (think "Bob the Builder" and "Teletubbies") for $345 million, sending Iconix shares up Wednesday and DHX shares down in morning trading, per Reuters.
The deal: The $345 million is higher than analysts estimated, Forbes reports. 80 percent is going to DHX while 20 percent of the Peanuts brand will remain with the cartoon's creator's family (Charles Schulz passed in 2000), according to DHX.
Why it's happening: Iconix is swimming in about $1.3 million in debt. When MetLife Inc. announced late 2016 it was dropping the Peanuts characters as mascots after three decades of collaboration (the contract runs out in 2019), that certainly didn't help, and Iconix began looking into a sale soon after the parting.
Why it matters: As Axios' Dan Primack wrote in January: "You mean, beyond the fact that we're talking about Woodstock, Lucy, Linus and the whole gang being for sale? Let alone the Great Pumpkin? You need more than that? No. That's enough."
