The Jim Henson Company has virtually wiped out its entire London-based European operation as part of a global strategy to scale down the business, writes Michael Rosser
Angus Fletcher, president of Jim Henson Television Europe, Sophie Finston, director of development, and Matthew Webb, European brands and marketing manager, are among the 12 redundancies at The Muppets creator.
The TV, marketing, licensing and PR departments have been shut down and all that remains in the London offices is the Creature Shop, now run by Pete Coogan.
There is uncertainty over what Fletcher's and Finston's next moves will be but Matthew Webb has launched indie Creative Results with comedians Richard Digance and Mike Osman. ITV has already ordered three programmes from the fledgling company, which has over 30 projects in the pipeline.
The downscaling follows the sale of the company back to the Jim Henson family in May after four years under the ownership of German firm EM.TV. The Munich-based company paid $690m (£440m) for the business at the height of the stock market boom but agreed to sell it back to the late Jim Henson's five children for around $89m (£55m).
EM.TV had been attempting to sell the company, producer of C4 show The Hoobs, for the past 18 months.
An insider told Broadcast that the cuts came as a shock in spite of an earlier email in which the company had warned of changes.
"It took everyone by surprise from the bottom to the very top. EM.TV had already raped the company by selling off properties like Sesame Street. But the Henson family have no financial partner and admit they do not know what to do," he said.
A Jim Henson spokesman was contacted by Broadcast, but did not return the call.
No comments yet