Offers made for Entertainment Rights, which owns children's characters such as Postman Pat and Basil Brush, will not cover its debts, according to the Guardian.

None of the bidders for the firm are willing to buy ER as a going concern; instead they are offering to buy out its assets and the holding company is likely to be...

Children's character company Entertainment Rights has warned that the business is "trading significantly below expectations" after a disappointing Christmas. The company also warned that the money owed to it by its North American DVD distributor Genius could be "at risk" after payments failed to be made on time.

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Penguin Group has agreed a global deal for the tie-in publishing rights to a new preschool television series, Tinga Tinga Tales. The series is created by Tiger Aspect, the production house behind the bestselling Charlie & Lola (Lauren Child) television programme.

Puffin has already worked with Tiger Aspect to produce the tie-in books...

Takeover target Entertainment Rights saw sales increase 129% to £68.1m in 2007, thanks to its acquisition of Classic Media in January last year. Operating profit at the children's licensing company improved by 61% to £17.1m, with pretax profit up just 1% to £7.9m.

In the UK, the group said significant progress had...