Muppets going home to Hensons

German media company EM.TV is selling the Muppets’ creator, the Jim Henson Company, to the Henson family in a deal worth £56m (€78.7m) – a fraction of what it paid for the company three years ago.

Munich-based EM.TV bought the Jim Henson Co. and rights to the Muppets in February 2000 for £426m (€599m)in cash and stock.

EM.TV was founded in 1989 and became a star of Germany’s tech-heavy Neuer Markt.

But dramatic moves such as buying the Jim Henson Co. – and, one month later, half of Formula One motor racing – proved flawed, piling up debt.