Sony shells out nearly half a billion for Peanuts

Still, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and all the rest will remain on Apple TV until at least 2030.

By Drew Gillis  |  December 19, 2025 | 3:30pm
Image courtesy of Apple TV
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Sony shells out nearly half a billion for Peanuts

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang are the newest hot old property that a large corporation is ready to spend a ton of money on. Variety reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan have bought out WildBrain’s shares of Peanuts Holdings LLC—about 41% percent of the company. Sony is paying about $457 million for the share. It had already owned 39% of Peanuts before the transaction, giving the company 80% of Peanuts. The Schultz family still owns the remaining 20%. The trade notes that the closing of the deal is still subject to regulatory approvals. 

WildBrain acquired 80% of Peanuts Holdings LLC in 2017, with Sony acquiring its first stake the following year. Since these moves, Peanuts has most notably run new projects on Apple TV, with Snoopy In Space kicking off in 2019 and followed by The Snoopy Show and Camp Snoopy. In late 2018, WildBrain (then called DHX Media) set a deal with Apple “to create series, specials, and shorts featuring iconic Charles M. Schulz characters such as Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the entire Peanuts gang.” Apple acquired the back catalog of classic Peanuts specials, including It’s The Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Christmas, in 2020. 

Earlier this year, Variety reported that Apple TV and Peanuts will stay in business together until at least 2030. WildBrain will still operate the production studio for those ventures, which includes a feature film. The purchase by Sony eliminates WildBrain’s debt, which, it wrote in a statement, “gives us financial flexibility to accelerate the growth of our iconic franchises Strawberry Shortcake and Teletubbies, while also investing in our premium digital content network across YouTube, FAST and AVOD, and in new technologies to drive innovation.”

 
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