Peanuts, home of Snoopy and Charlie Brown, is up for sale

San Francisco

US BRAND management company Iconix Brand Group Inc is exploring a sale of its majority stake in Peanuts Worldwide LLC, which owns the rights to cartoon strip characters Snoopy and Charlie Brown, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move sent shares of Iconix up more than 5 per cent.

It comes three months after US insurance company MetLife Inc dropped the Peanuts characters it had been using as mascots for more than 30 years - a blow to debt-burdened Iconix.

The characters, which include Lucy, Peppermint Patty and Pigpen, have attracted the interest of Chinese companies as well as other investors keen to snap up US media and licensing assets, the people …