A deal to buy American Greetings’ Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears properties for $195 million has cleared the way for Cookie Jar Entertainment to acquire Los Angles-based brand management giant DIC Entertainment.

Cookie Jar’s June 20 agreement to buy DIC Entertainment for $87.6 million was blocked by a preliminary injunction from American Greetings Corp., which argued it had not agreed to the takeover that it said would harm the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bear properties that it had licensed to DIC Entertainment.

But talks in recent weeks between Cookie Jar and American Greetings led to a dismissal of all outstanding litigation, and Cookie Jar’s acquisition of the product licensing rights to the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears properties. In the last five years, both properties have raked in a combined $5 billion in retail sales of licensing product.

Cookie Jar also acquires the rights to Sushi Pack, a property that American Greetings and DIC Entertainment have co-produced.

Besides a $195 million payout, Cookie Jar also granted American Greetings another 10 years to exploit the greeting card licensing rights to Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears and the Sushi Pack properties.

Cookie Jar CEO Michael Hirsh said the DIC Entertainment and American Greetings deals will vault his company into the top ranks of indie animation and brand management, with a library of around 6,000 half-hours of programming.

‘We’re looking to establish worldwide leadership in the kids arenas, and these deals are important steps in achieving that goal,’ he said.

Cookie Jar closed the DIC Entertainment deal on Tuesday, and has to finance the American Greetings transaction before it can close as expected at the end of September.

American Greetings’ intellectual property group CEO Josef Mandelbaum in a statement said his company realized fair value for the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears properties, which it has held for 25 years.

The irony is, despite having to battle American Greetings in recent weeks in the courts before it acquired control of the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears properties, Hirsh was instrumental in their creation.

Nelvana, which Hirsh co-founded and ran until 2000, produced several episodes of Strawberry Shortcake for American Greetings on a fee-for-service basis in 1983, as well as some of The Care Bears shows.

After the success of the Care Bear: The Movie, Nelvana went on to produce hit 1990s cartoon series, some based on European characters, such as Rupert Bear, The Adventures of Tintin and Little Bear.

Hirsh insists Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears remain evergreen properties still ripe for exploitation.

‘These are great brands. We believe we have the knowledge and the people to make them bigger than they ever have been,’ he argues.

DIC Entertainment will operate as a subsidiary of Cookie Jar, with company chairman and CEO Andy Heyward remaining on board via an employment agreement with the Toronto company.