American Greetings Properties has confirmed the sale of its Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Sushi Pack properties to Toronto’s Cookie Jar Entertainment will not go through.

‘These are very difficult economic times and the original deal with Cookie Jar is no longer viable,’ said an American Greetings spokesperson. ‘We are still looking at other options as our intent is still to sell the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake properties at this time.’

Care Bears, Sushi Pack and Strawberry Shortcake remain under AG’s ownership. Cookie Jar had agreed to purchase the three properties from AG in July 2008 for US$195 million. The deal was to have closed on Sept. 30. A spokesperson for Cookie Jar said that the company had nothing new to report at this time and had no additional comment.

The loss of the Cookie Jar deal comes on the heels of an extension of AG’s home entertainment licence with Lionsgate, which has snagged DVD and electronic sell-through rights to Sushi Pack.

Lionsgate has been distributing Care Bears entertainment, including the classic TV series and direct-to-DVD CGI-animated features, for the past five years. The extended deal also gives the studio rights to 48 eps of the new series Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot and a new CGI movie slated for a fall 2009 launch, as well as extended rights to the classic CB catalogue.

From Kidscreen Daily