Alvin and the Chipmunks pose with their newly unveiled Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony held in Hollywood, California on March 14, 2019, to celebrate their 60th anniversary.
Bagdasarian Productions is looking for a buyer for the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise. According to sources familiar with the matter, it wants to capitalize on the high prices media companies and private equity investors are willing to pay to acquire intellectual property.
Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice Karman own and operate the company. However, they have not reached an agreement on terms with potential buyers such as ViacomCBS.
Bagdasarian Productions has been working with a financial advisor and is looking for a price around $300 million, according to two people.
To increase their subscription offerings, streaming services like ViacomCBS’s Paramount+ and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max have been looking for intellectual property. Netflix announced in September that it had acquired the Roald Dahl catalog. He is the author of children's books such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "James and the Giant Peach", and "Matilda". Bloomberg reported that the deal was worth more than $700million.
Private equity firms such as Carlyle and Providence Equity, Apollo Global, Blackstone, and Apollo Global have expressed an interest in content acquisitions.
Bagdasarian Jr. created Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1958 to entertain children. The Alvin Show, which featured Alvin, Simon, and Theodore as chipmunks, was launched in 1961. Their voices were sped up to give them their distinctive high-pitched sound. There were many iterations of television shows and movies that followed, including the 2007 "Alvin and the Chipmunks movie" and three sequels.
Bagsadarian Jr., and Karman manage the franchise from Santa Barbara, California. According to someone familiar with the matter they engaged financial firms to sell their company around four years ago. However, those discussions were ultimately abandoned.
CNBC reached out to the Bagdasarian Productions Facebook Page at the number provided for comment. The caller said that there was no one available to speak with you on that subject and then hang up.
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