The Muppets film, "Muppets from Space", released by Columbia Pictures in 1999. In 2000, Henson was sold to EM.TV & Merchandising AG for $680 million. However, EM.TV was plagued with financial problems and the Henson family re-acquired the company in 2003, with the exception of the rights to the "Sesame Street" characters, which had been sold by EM.TV to Sesame Workshop. Fourteen years after initial negotiations began, Disney acquired the Muppets intellectual property from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquisition consisted of the Muppets and "Bear in the Big Blue House" properties, as well as
The Muppets Take Manhattan revert to The Jim Henson Company in 1998, but did not revert to The Walt Disney Company in 2004. Due to this, it is one of three Muppet films (along with "Muppets from Space" and the direct-to-video feature "Kermit's Swamp Years") whose home video distribution rights are controlled by Sony Pictures, and not the Walt Disney Studios (The film rights are co-owned by TriStar Pictures and The Jim Henson Company). "The Muppets Take Manhattan" was first released on VHS and the now defunct CED Videodisc format by CBS/Fox Video in 1985, which then reissued it in 1991, followed by a