Big Idea Productions, creator of Veggie Tales, sold at auction.

CREATOR of the hugely popular Veggie Tales animated series, Big Idea Productions, has finally been sold. After a bankruptcy auction that took more than seven hours, the assets of Big Idea Productions sold for US$19.3 million to New York-based Classic Media LLC on 30th October - a figure nearly US$12 million higher than Classic first agreed to pay back in August. Competing bidder Wet Cement Studios, a Minnesota-based startup animator, offered the highest bid of $19.6 million for Big Idea but lost the auction after the company failed to prove it had the funds to close the deal.

Wet Cement and another bidder, FUNimation, announced they may appeal the ruling of US Bankruptcy Judge John H Squires. However, the sale to Classic is still expected to close by 15th December. Big Idea's financial woes came after the company plunged into the full length film Jonah: A Veggie Tales movie. Though the film received critical acclaim and generated $25 million at the box office, Big Idea saw little or no return after the distributor and the theatres took their share of the receipts. That loss was compounded in July when Big Idea was ordered by a federal jury in Texas to pay £10.6 million in a breach of contract lawsuit filed by Lyrick.