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Big Idea Productions says it's looking for a buyer
Earlier this month, federal judge Barbara M.G. Lynn of Texas upheld the decision of a jury that Big Idea Productions, creators of the VeggieTales, owed a former distributor more than $11 million for breach of an unsigned contract. Christian Retailing reported last week that the amount owed Lyrick Productions "would cripple Big Idea without outside financial partners or an outright sale."

Big Idea founder and CEO Phil Vischer told Christian Retailing that he is now in talks with investors and could announce a move as early as this week. In the last year, Big Idea has had to downsize its staff considerably. Vischer told Christian Retailing that the company is now down to 45 employees. (Before the release of its first full-length feature film, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, Big Idea employed more than 200 people, both part time and full time.)

The decision to sell Big Idea comes as a surprise given Vischer's longtime commitment to creative control. Last year, then-COO Terry Botwick told CT, "In order to uphold the integrity of our vision and maintain creative control on Jonah, we made a corporate decision to not accept outside funding."

However, Vischer told Christian Retailing that the new business plan was necessary not only because they lost the suit, but also because they attempted to expand the company too quickly. "We got ourselves upside down financially when everything was working wonderfully," Vischer told Christian Retailing. "When things were doing so well, I thought that was God wanting us to expand, so we grew like crazy. Now I think it was more me having all these great ideas in my head and being so excited that I wanted to do them all at once."

A CT source said last year that Big Idea was financially strong on direct-to-video sales before making Jonah. A week before the movie opened, Big Idea laid off more than 30 employees. Vischer said the move was made necessary because of the studio's production schedule as well as a weakened retail environment.

At this month's Cornerstone Festival, Squint Entertainment founder Steve Taylor said in a Phantom Tollbooth press conference that Big Idea lost money in a 2001 attempt to join him in buying the label from parent company Word Records as it was being sold to Gaylord Entertainment. But the signing was postponed. (Gaylord has since sold Word Records, along with the Squint label, to Warner Bros.)

"At first, it was looking like Word was dragging their feet, and then, it became more and more apparent that Big Idea was actually in financial difficulty as well," Taylor said. "As successful as they've been, and as great a work as they have done, they'd actually gotten to where they were over their head financially and hired too many people, and they were just having trouble keeping their cash flow going."

Big Idea and Taylor then agreed to fund Squint themselves while they raised the funds to purchase it. "Big Idea was assuring me that they would be able to come up with the money, it was just a matter of a few months…but they actually were in such a financial hole, they were never able to get out of it," Taylor said. "During these six months, I'm paying money out of my rapidly depleting bank account…and Big Idea was probably matching every dollar I put in 2 to 1. The more they got in, the more I was sure they would actually close because they wouldn't want to lose all that money. I was wrong on that and they had to pull out right at the last minute."

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47