Dark Horse Entertainment and Slovenia-based Strip Art Features (SAF) have teamed up to create a new company, Venture, which will publish graphic novels and comic books with the intent to launch them onto film and television. The first graphic novel to be produced by the firm will be BLOOD TIES by Belgian artist Hermann and writer Yves H. The story is described as a Faustian tale that journeys into a rotten big city with a junior detective from the suburbs named Sam Leighton.

Plagued TV producer Cinar has filed a CA$28.6 million (US$19 million) civil suit against company founders Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Charest and former senior executive VP and CFO Hasanain Panju.

New reports have the Walt Disney Co. throwing its name into the hat to help bail out German producer EM.TV & Merchandising by purchasing its Jim Henson Co. EM.TV acquired the Muppet makers last February in a cash and stock transaction valued at US$680 million. However, rumors have voiced former president and CEO Brian Henson's disapproval over the deal due to the devaluation of the company's stock. In the past, when the Jim Henson Co. was privately held, Disney and the Muppet masters had signed a licensing deal with each other that brought Henson-owned characters to Disney theme parks.

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Warner Bros. has folded its TV Animation, Feature Animation and Classic Animation under the single Warner Bros. Animation roof. Rumors have been flying of late about massive lays off and the closing of the Classics division, however a Warner Bros. spokeswoman has told AWN that under ten employees were let go as a result of the restructuring. Warner Bros. Animation is transforming into a running production business model, instead of its overhead model of the past. The new plan will create more accountability and efficiency throughout the division.

Walt Disney Co. has announced that it will close down the Walt Disney Internet Group and its Go.com portal. As a result, 400 out of nearly 2,000 employees will be laid off. Shares in the Walt Disney Internet Group will be converted in to Disney common stock. As a result, Disney will take a US$790 million second-quarter charge, or 37 cents per share, for the issuing of 8.1 million new shares in the entertainment mega-firm. In addition, Disney will also take a $25-$50 million charge for severance packages and other additional costs.

Embattled Montreal-based Cinar Corp. has announced that its self-imposed auditor, Ernst & Young, has resigned due to the company's failure to produce key information about possible fraud and other illegal acts at the animation production house. Due to the fact that the auditor will not sign off, Cinar will release unaudited versions of its reworked financial statements from 1997-1999. The company intends to release these long awaited documents to investors sometime during the week of Monday, January 29, 2001.

Tom Snyder Productions' entertainment division has changed its name to Soup2Nuts. The firm provides writers, casting, audio, editing, post-production and animation for its various productions, which have included DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST and THE DICK AND PAULA CELEBRITY SPECIAL. Currently the company is producing the upcoming Cartoon Network series HOME MOVIES, HEY MONIE for Oxygen Network's X-CHROMOSOME series and LIVE AT THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE for PBS online (www.pbs.org). Soup2Nuts is owned by Torstar, a Toronto-based information and entertainment communications company.

EM.TV & Merchandising's supervisory board has announced that it is still debating whether to accept or reject German media conglomerate KirchGroup's financial rescue offer. The deal would give Kirch a 25% voting share in EM.TV and half of the company's 50% stake in Formula One racing group SLEC. In addition, Kirch would buy out EM.TV's half of kids television rights group Junior TV for US$550 million in cash. However, recently another offer has come onto the table for EM.TV. Herbert Kloiber's Tele-Munchen Group and U.S.

Sony Computer Entertainment has spun off PlayStation.com as a separate arm of the mega-firm to handle the company's online game initiatives. The Foster City, California-based division will oversee Sony's e-commerce and online distribution of Sony's games, music and movies. On Tuesday, January 30, 2001, the Website will begin to sell the tough-to-obtain PlayStation 2 gaming console. There are already plans in the works to spin the division off in a public stock offering or tracking stock.