Sony proves it has no Peanuts allergy as Snoopy becomes world’s most expensive beagle

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Just before Christmas 2025, Sony announced it had increased its stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC, which owns the rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts cartoon characters, to 80%, in a deal worth US $457m (£340m) in cash, valuing the whole Peanuts empire at more than US$1.1bn.

Sony already had a 39% stake in Peanuts Holdings; it has now bought out the 41% stake previously held by Canadian media company WildBrain. The members of the family of Charles M. Schulz, the original creator of Peanuts, which made its debut 75 years ago, continue to own the remaining 20%. Schulz wrote every Snoopy strip until his death in 2000.

The ownership of the rights to Peanuts and the management of its licensing business continues to be handled by Peanuts Worldwide LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Peanuts Holdings.

Schulz hated the name Peanuts, but it was forced on him as his preferred title, L’il Folk, was too close to an existing cartoonist’s strip, Little Folks, and legal advice said this was a registered trade mark. So Peanuts it became – even though apparently Schulz refused to use it (he called it “that strip with Snoopy and Charlie Brown in it” and lobbied for the next 50 years to change it to Charlie Brown. Unfortunately for him, it became so successful under the Peanuts name that changing it was deemed to be too expensive and too much hassle for licensees…

Last year, Apple TV signed an exclusive five-year extension to its streaming partnership with Peanuts, which includes the development of a news series as well as rerunning classic animated content including “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

WildBrain said in a statement that the deal eliminates all debt, saves approximately C$50m in annual interest payments, and still leaves over C$40m in cash which it plans to reinvest in its other properties – it has rights to Teletubbies, Strawberry Shortcake, Yo Gabba Gabba! and Inspector Gadget, amongst others.

Under the agreement with Sony, WildBrain also remains a multi-year partner to Peanuts for key services, including licensing for consumer products in all current territories across Europe, the Middle East, China, and Asia Pacific (excluding Japan and Australia/New Zealand) and producing new Peanuts content, including a previously announced feature film, under the partnership with Apple TV. It will continue to distribute WildBrain-produced Peanuts content and manage the Snoopy YouTube channel.