History Main / FranchiseOwnershipAcquisition

* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird founded Mirage Studios in 1983 in order to publish the stories of the heroes in a half-shell and other comics. While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be subject to ChannelHop throughout the years, Eastman and Laird would remain at the helm of their comic adventures and rights over the broader franchise. They would sell the franchise in 2009 to Creator/ParamountGlobal while comics (as one of the terms made in the binding contract to sell TMNT) would continue to be made by Creator/IDWPublishing.

** Disney bought ''Franchise/TheMuppets'' from The Jim Henson Company in 2004. Only two movies in the franchise are not owned by Disney (at least for now) -- ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan'' and ''Film/MuppetsFromSpace'', which were respectively coproduced by Creator/TriStarPictures and Creator/ColumbiaPictures, both owned by Creator/{{Sony}}.

* Creator/{{Atlus}}, the creator of numerous games and game franchises such as ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'', ''VideoGame/DeptHeaven'', ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', and ''VideoGame/PowerInstinct'' to name a few of these, had cooperated with Index Corporation throughout its history and was formally acquired by them in 2006. In June 2013, Index was found guilty of financial fraud and went into bankruptcy. Sega Sammy bought Atlus from its embattled parent company in September of that same year. Some of these Atlus properties have been incorporated to some degree in some of Sega's franchises, such as ''VideoGame/Persona5'' protagonist Joker's outfit being a DLC apparel for the Custom Hero/Avatar in ''VideoGame/SonicForces''.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' and ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'', the former unofficial mascots of the original Platform/PlayStation, have had quite a few owners of them over the years. Though published by Sony Computer Entertainment from 1996-2000, they were both owned by Universal Interactive (a subsidiary of Creator/{{Universal}} focused on the creation and publication of video games). Universal Interactive held onto the [=IPs=] until 2003 when its parent company sold the video game division to Creator/{{Vivendi}}. Vivendi's game division, originally called "Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing" then eventually renamed Vivendi Games, was in turn sold to Creator/{{Activision}} in 2008. Decades later, Creator/ActivisionBlizzard (resulting from a merger with Creator/BlizzardEntertainment) would be acquired by Microsoft. [[{{Irony}} The one-time unofficial mascots of the PlayStation brand are now in the possession of a rival video game console manufacturer]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' and [[VideoGame/Destiny2 its sequel]] were originally co-produced by Creator/{{Activision}} and Creator/{{Bungie}}, before Bungie split from Activision in 2019 over CreativeDifferences, taking the ''Destiny'' franchise with them. Creator/{{Sony}} acquired Bungie and its IPs in 2022 as part of a greater push towards live-service games. [[{{Irony}} Just as how Microsoft owns the rights to the original PlayStation's unofficial mascots, the company that made]] [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Master Chief]] [[{{Irony}} is now part of Xbox's biggest competitor.]]