Leading sponsorship and television rights agency ISL has enhanced its licensing and merchandising operations by adding "Star Wars" and Snoopy to its roster.
ISL bought out European entertainment specialist Copyright Promotions Group, which moved into sports only recently, in a deal announced Jan. 11. ISL parent ISMM Investments (80 percent of whose business comes from ISL activities) will own slightly more than 51 percent of Copyright Promotions' shares.
The deal values Copyright, which is quoted on the main London stock market, at $35.1 million.
The takeover likely means that Copyright will handle European licensing of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup soccer events, for which ISL holds the rights. ISL also holds rights to the FIFA brand in general use.
The connection between the two companies began last autumn when ISL chose Copyright, whose core business is entertainment character licensing, as the licensing company for the Euro 2000 soccer tournament. At that time, ISMM, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, also took a 25 percent stake in Copyright.
"Since then, it has been an engagement, and now we have decided to tie the knot," said Heinz Schurtenberger, ISMM's chief operating officer. "We have made a very generous offer. We're so sure that it's a perfect match that there is no need to be cautious."
The ISMM offer represents a premium of about 21 percent on Copyright's share price at the end of business Jan. 8. The plan is to take Copyright private by April.
Copyright Promotions Group entered the sports market only two years ago when it obtained licensing rights to the 1999 Cricket World Cup from the England and Wales Cricket Board. It also represents the National Federation of Anglers and the Professional Darts Corp. Entertainment clients include Fox ("The Simpsons"), DC Thomson ("Dennis the Menace"), MGM and Sony Pictures.
"The main motivation for this acquisition was CPG's overall position in the licensing market," Schurtenberger said. "They are active in the main European markets and they are decentralized so that they can really exploit each individual market.
"They are the leaders in the entertainment licensing sector, and the same retailers and the same consumers are in the sports sector."
Along with the big soccer events, ISL represents the ATP Tour, CART, the Olympic Council of Asia, the International Amateur Athletics Federation, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the International Swimming Federation (FINA).
Both partners hope the deal will better enable sports that trail soccer in popularity to better coordinate and develop licensing activities.
"The properties such as the IAAF do not necessarily lend themselves to retail development, but we see the opportunity to develop on-site licensing for their events," said David Cardwell, Copyright CEO. "In the case of the Cricket World Cup, we are also responsible for manufacturing the on-site products, and this is an area we would aim to develop."
Copyright has 120 staff members and subsidiaries in eight Western European markets. ISL hopes to build it into a global operation to develop its activities in Japan, a 2002 World Cup co-host, and other markets outside Europe.
Jay Stuart is editorial director of SporTVision magazine and the Sports TV Report and Sports Investor newsletters.
