Word: spin-off
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...STARTED A more personal--or is it more narcissistic?--spin-off of the logo mania that peaked in the late 1990s...
...doesn't stop there. A VeggieTales book imprint was launched this month, the first VeggieTales computer game will appear in September, and the mouthy little vegetables are currently doing the last few performances of a stage show that has been touring for six months. There have been two spin-off series: Larry Boy and Penguins 3-2-1, and this summer about a million kids will attend VeggieTales church camps, where they will learn about Jonah and the whale. This should prime them nicely for Jonah: a VeggieTales Movie, which is slated to hit more than a thousand movie screens...
...Kids are very savvy very young," says Kim Kirberger, author of the 13 million-selling Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books, a spin-off of the original Chicken Soup series. "We have a very empty culture, and kids are realizing that money, possessions and success don't necessarily make for happiness. There has been an upsurge in teens looking for answers about life...
...well as the publicity and merchandising benefits, Quesada insists that the comics market learned a lesson from The X-Men film: "We missed the boat editorially. The movie was streamlined, whereas the comics were incredibly convoluted, with spin-off titles that splintered the characters. That was alienating and put us in a bad position to capitalize on the movie." Marvel has since relaunched both The X-Men and Spider-Man, bringing the stories in line with the films' simplified structure. Quesada has also hired Hollywood talent: for example, Kevin Smith, screenwriter of the 1994 cult hit comedy Clerks, was recruited...
Periods of takeovers followed by sprees of spin-offs are hardly new. M and A activity usually increases as markets and liquidity rise, while demergers often occur after things go bust. "Clearly there is quite a cyclical and fashionable element involved," says HSBC's Russell. That's partly explained by the investment banks' need to make money regardless of market performance. "If you can't do the merger, do the spin-off. In bad times, the spin-off is the easier sell," Minichiello says. Management comes under pressure from investors to "do something," and the investment banks are there with...