The saga of Big Idea continues. Way back in 2003, the assets of Big Idea Productions were bought by a company called Classic Media, run by two guys named John Engelman and Eric Ellenbogen. In 2007 John and Eric sold Classic Media and the new Big Idea to a British company called Entertainment Rights, which promptly drove into a ditch. In the year following the purchase, the share price of Entertainment Rights stock dropped by 97%.
Ouch.
So sort of like Big Idea Productions back in '03, the bank involved (the Royal Bank of Scotland in this case), stepped in and put Entertainment Rights up for sale to see how much of its money it could recover. Then the Royal Bank of Scotland got into trouble, and was itself sold to Lloyds of London. And finally, to wrap up this sordid tale of financial woe, Lloyds of London successfully sold off the assets of Entertainment Rights last week. To whom? John Engelman and Eric Ellenbogen. The same two guys who owned Classic and Big Idea two years ago.
So Big Idea's new owners are Big Idea's old owners. Interesting, huh?
What does it all mean? What's in store for Bob and Larry? For Mike and the others still at Big Idea after all these years? Any implications for JellyTelly? Dunno. Too soon to tell. But I'll try to keep you all up to speed as the story further unfolds.
Oh – by the way – if you attend Pepperdine University, I'll be your chapel speaker tomorrow morning. I'm off to sunny Malibu, CA, where, learning a valuable lesson from Mel Gibson, I will not launch into any anti-semetic rants if pulled over by Malibu's finest. (My first goal, of course, will be to avoid driving in such a way as to be pulled over by Malibu's finest. My second goal, assuming my first goal is unsuccessful, will be to avoid ranting against any people group, semetic or otherwise. I'm also not going to shave my head on camera like Brittany Spears. I figure if I just do the opposite of what a major Hollywood celebrity would do in any situation, everything should work out pretty well and I'll be able to return to the Midwest unscathed.)
Jelly on…
underconsideration.comAs an interesting aside, the VeggieTales logo redesign was just featured on the popular design web site Brand New.
The review (and comments) were generally pretty positive!
Whoa…that explanation kinda made my head feel funny. Like when you twirl around too fast.
So, does Classic Media own Big Idea now, or just those two guys on their own?
So they sold Big Idea, and now are able to buy it back for pennies on the dollar. Either smart people or lucky ones, I’d bet on the second.
How well did religious media do during the last serious economic crisis, the one in the 1930s?
I read that Boomerang bought Veggietales and other properties for Classic in Animation Magazine.
Boomerand Media LLC is owned/operated by John Engelman and Eric Ellenbogen.
Sorry, that was “Boomerang Media LLC”
Something similar happened to the educational corporation my wife used to work for. It was started originally by two entrepreneurs. They built one of the most successful for-profit educatoin conglomerates in the world, including tutoring, testing, and an online college. They spun off the testing and the online college into their own companies a couple years ago. Then they took their company “public”. It started off well, but they made some classic overexpansion mistakes, and the stock price plummeted. So eventually, with some help from a couple major banks, they took the company private again, as the majority shareholders of the new company that owned it.
That’s almost… um… hilarious (?)
If the pattern I see continues, you Phil will own Big Idea again. But that will probably not happen, and thats probably good, considering that you have JellyTelly now.
Are there anymore Phil Vischer kids books on their way?
Jonathan
Oh, and you spell her name Britney, not Brittany. I don’t blame you for not reading gossip magazines
Is Britney related to Archibald? They’re both Spears, right?
“Boomerang Media”? I guess that kinda fits, doesn’t it?
i think Archibald is an asparagus kinda like hes junior’s uncle maybe
Hey Phil! Did you happen to see Monsters vs. Aliens that came out in the theater recently? I thought it was awesome that B.O.B., the blue blob guy, was a tomato (!) before he was chemically mutated into a blue blob and named “Bob.”
Hahaha, to all of the above 🙂
Weird, well maybe the new/old owners would be more friendly to playing VT episodes on JellyTelly? I wish I attended pepperdine university. Good to hear that big idea hasn’t simply “ceased to be”
That would be great if we could watch Veggietales on JellyTelly.
By the way, JellyTelly seems a bit malfuctional. I can’t choose what shows to watch; there’s no side bar.
Seems like there’s some prep being done for premium content!
Way to go! Ready to spill the beans on the plan?
(And I love The Fantastic World… Looks really funny, and impactful!)
Fantastic World…impactful? Definitely funny, but I guess we’ll see when it comes out.
That’s kinda funny when you think about it. Let’s see what God has in store :). By the way, I laughed when I read that last paragraph!
Well, check out their website about it – they’re good guys.
Whats the url for their website bryan
thefantasticworld.comthefantasticworld.comThat would be http://www.thefantasticworld.com/. Actually when you click on the site and scroll to the bottom you’ll see a JellyTelly ad. Cool, huh?
thefantasticworld.comWow, sorry about that previous comment. Something messed up there. Anyway, the link is http://www.thefantasticworld.com/.
When you click on the site and scroll to the bottom you’ll see a JellyTelly ad.
The VeggieTale Ambassadors (smaller volunteer list) have returned for the first time since Pirates movie came out! Ambassador Kits should ship the week of July 20 for the newest release of Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah’s Umbrella (store release date Aug. 4).
do you still run bigidea