4Kids still exploring sale

Children’s television distributor 4Kids Entertainment has said it is continuing to explore its strategic options as losses at the New York-based company widened.

4Kids said last summer that it was considering a sell-off of the business or some of its assets and it has since relinquished rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which Nickelodeon subsequently nabbed for US$60m.

4Kids said yesterday that while its fourth quarter revenues had received a US$9.8m boost due to the end of the Ninja Turtle agreement, its net revenue for the full year was US$36.8m, down from US$57.2m for 2008.

The company’s pre-tax loss for the 12 months to December 31 plunged to US$52.5m, compared with US$36.8m a year earlier.

“While working to strengthen our business, the company is also continuing to pursue potential strategic transactions that could potentially have a positive effect on shareholder value,” 4Kids chairman and CEO Alfred Kahn said.

“We believe that we have a stronger pipeline of new properties than in recent years, which we hope will benefit the company in the years ahead. We are also working on a number of other deals which we expect will result in additional licences and opportunities for 4Kids in 2010.”