Los Angeles - Walt Disney is to buy the franchise for Muppets characters, including Kermit and Miss Piggy, from The Jim Henson Company.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal, which is expected to close in about two months, is the culmination of a decades-long pursuit of the Muppets by Disney, which came close to acquiring the characters in 1990.
The deal fell apart shortly after the death of company founder Jim Henson.
Munich-based EM.TV bought The Jim Henson Company in February 2000 for $680 million (R4.492 billion) in cash and stock. The company sold it back to the Henson family last July for $78 million in cash.
The deal does not include the Sesame Street characters, such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, who were sold earlier by EM.TV to the Sesame Workshop.
The Muppet characters already exist in Disney theme parks in a 3D film. Disney will also buy the franchise for Bear in the Big Blue House, a long-running show on the Disney cable television channel.
Talks between Disney and the Henson family continued for about six months.
Lisa Henson, who is co-chair and co-chief executive of the company, said: "We have been very impressed by how the Disney company treats its characters.
"We feel if the Muppets are treated with as much care in the long term as Walt Disney's characters are, we will have properly served the legacy."
The deal includes a four-year consulting arrangement with The Jim Henson Company to provide strategic advice on the use of the characters, and a three-year production deal to develop movies, television shows and other projects.
The Jim Henson Company will retain its Creature Shop, which builds the puppet characters and provides special effects for other studios, as well as the rights to its film and television library, including Fraggle Rock and Farscape.
The announcement is a much-needed boost for Disney, which has been under attack for weeks from former board members and is the subject of a hostile takeover bid from cable television giant Comcast.
It is also a coup for Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, who has been attacked by critics who say he lacks management skills.