Ragdoll Worldwide 'up for sale'
Ragdoll Worldwide, the joint venture that manages pre-school children’s characters created by Warwickshire-based Ragdoll Productions, including the Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Brum and Boohbah, could be sold.
Ragdoll Worldwide is a joint venture between Ragdoll Productions, based at Pinewood Studios, and BBC Worldwide.
BBC Worldwide would not comment on what it called “speculation” about a deal. But a reliable source told Insider that various options were being considered, including a sale of part or whole of the joint venture, though it was “still early days”.
But the source told Insider the sum of £13m mentioned in press reports was “way off”.
“It’s not as straightforward as multiplying earnings by five. In this case there is a lot more value to the business than meets the eye, so that estimate is on the low side,” he said.
Ragdoll was founded by children’s television programme maker Anne Wood in 1984. Still privately owned by the Wood family, Ragdoll itself is not for sale.
