At the time of his death, Jim Henson’s eponymous company was valued at between $100 and $150 million, and the Disney Company had been in negotiations to buy its assets, according to Success magazine. While his five children inherited the Jim Henson Company, his wife, Jane Nebel Henson, had given up her stake in the company before her husband’s death, per the Orlando Sentinel. Jane was separated from her husband, but they had not divorced at the time of his death.
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The massive Disney deal fell through just months after Jim Henson’s death, according to the Los Angeles Times. Lawsuits and public accusations between the Henson family and Disney executives followed. The Hensons alleged Disney had been using the Muppets without a licensing agreement. “Even though Disney walked away from its offer to buy our company, it is acting as if it owns the Muppets,” Brian Henson, Jim Henson’s oldest son, told the newspaper in April 1991. Disney responded by calling the Hensons’ allegations “an enormous distortion of the facts.” The next month, the two parties settled out of court, per the Times-Advocate. In 2004, Disney bought the rights to the Muppets.
