HIT Offloads Guinness World Records

LONDON, February 15: Canada’s Jim Pattison Entertainment, a
subsidiary of The Jim Pattison Group, has acquired Guinness World Records from
HIT Entertainment for an undisclosed sum.

First published in 1955, Guinness World Records has
developed its annual book into an international phenomenon published in more
than 100 countries and 37 languages.

Until its sale today, Guinness World Records had been a
division of HIT Entertainment, an independent producer and distributor of
family programming worldwide. The company’s library of children’s content
includes the properties Bob the Builder,
Barney, Thomas &
Friends, Pingu, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina.

The Jim Pattison Group is a Vancouver-based private company
whose holdings include Ripley Entertainment, which has held the global rights
to develop and operate Guinness World Records museums and attractions for more
than a decade. There are now six Guinness World Record attractions in four
countries, including Tokyo, Japan; Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; Hollywood,
California, San Antonio, Texas, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the U.S., and
Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jim Pattison Jr., the president of Ripley Entertainment,
said: "Guinness World Records
is an iconic brand, and we are delighted to have been given the opportunity by
HIT Entertainment to add this global leader in world records to our group. No
other enterprise collects, confirms, accredits and presents world-record data
with the same investment in comprehensiveness and authenticity. The coming
together of Guinness World Records and Ripley's Believe It or Not! creates a
historic combination of the world-leading authorities on records and record
breaking, and all that is unbelievable."

—By Irene Lew