Nickelodeon acquires Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for $60m
Heroes in a half shell sell out, but no word on videogame rights
The worldwide rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand have been sold to Viacom division Nickelodeon, for a sum of approximately USD 60 million (GBP 36.3 million).
Rival 4Kids Entertainment, which currently licenses the property on behalf of The Mirage Group, will receive USD 9.75 million (GBP 5.9 million), with a possible extra USD 1 million upon expiration of the escrow relating to the transaction.
Previous rights owner The Mirage Group was founded by original comic book creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who were also closely involved in the creation of the original cartoon series. However, in 2000 Laird began a buyout of Eastman's share of the company, which was completed in 2008.
Nickelodeon plans to develop a new computer generated TV series, to premiere in 2012, as well as a new feature film in partnership with Viacom's Paramount Pictures.
Although Nickelodeon now owns all merchandising rights it has stated it will continue to work with long-time toy licensee Playmates. No announcement has been made regarding the videogame rights, which are currently owned by Ubisoft.
Over the franchise's 25 year history the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have appeared in numerous videogames, with Konami producing a number of popular titles during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. However, newer titles, such as Ubisoft's recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up, have been less well received.
Although Nickelodeon has given no indication of its plans for the videogame rights it may look to follow companies such as Disney and Marvel in bringing video game development, or at least publishing, in-house. A similar move is widely anticipated when the company's more general licensing agreement with THQ expires in 2010.