MOUSE GETS MUPPETS FOR $100M

After a 14-year odyssey to capture Kermit the Frog and his Muppet pals, Michael Eisner has finally got them all.

Walt Disney yesterday announced it is acquiring the popular characters from the heirs of their late creator, puppeteer Jim Henson, for an undisclosed price said to exceed $100 million.

Eisner first tried to buy the Muppets in 1990, offering $150 million to Henson. But he died before a deal could be concluded, triggering a long legal fight that Henson’s heirs won.

Henson’s children then sold the Muppets to a German group four years ago for $680 million in stock and cash, and the Germans in turn spun off Big Bird and Elmo to Sesame Street for $200 million.

The Henson kids, however, saw their big killing evaporate when the German buyer’s stock in EM-TV collapsed in a 2002 bankruptcy.

Seven months ago, the kids bought back the Muppets from EM-TV for $78 million in cash in an auction battle against Eisner, who then had been offering $100 million – $70 million in cash and $30 million in assumed debt.

Industry sources say this time, Disney paid more than $100 million for the characters – including Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Gonzo – and all the Muppet films, television libraries and trademarks.

The sale doesn’t include the Sesame Street characters.

Brian Henson, 40, and his four siblings who run the Jim Henson Co. studios said they were “proud to have the Muppets living under the same roof as Walt Disney’s own timeless characters.”

Eisner said that he has admired the Muppets since the 1960s and that his purchase “is the culmination of a longtime desire to welcome them into the Walt Disney Company.”