THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Golden Books Agrees to Buy a Video Library

Golden Books Family Entertainment Inc. said yesterday that it would acquire the family video library of Broadway Video Entertainment for $91 million in cash and stock.

Golden Books, the largest publisher of children's books in North America, also said that Hallmark Cards Inc. would buy as much as $50 million of its stock by year-end.

The publisher said the plans were part of a strategy to build a multimedia family entertainment company on its core Golden Books brand.

In May, an investor group that included Richard E. Snyder, the former chief executive of Viacom's Simon & Schuster unit; Barry Diller, the head of Home Shopping Network Inc., and a fund managed by E. M. Warburg, Pincus & Company acquired a controlling interest in Golden Books, which was previously the Western Publishing Group.

Golden Books said it was acquiring the family video library of Broadway Video for $81 million in cash and $10 million in Golden Books stock.

"The focus of our strategy is to revitalize and build upon the core Golden Books business and to use the power of the Golden Books brand to build a family entertainment company that creates and exploits copyrights through multiple media," Mr. Snyder, now the chairman of Golden Books, said.

Broadway Video Entertainment is a subsidiary of Broadway Video Inc., a company founded in 1979 by Lorne Michaels, longtime producer of "Saturday Night Live." The library, comprising copyrights and licenses to characters, films and TV programs, includes titles like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Lassie," "Felix the Cat" and "The Lone Ranger."

Golden Books said the acquisition would form the core of a new business unit, Golden Books Entertainment Group, that is to focus on family-related video, television, film and multimedia.

Golden Books also said that Hallmark agreed to buy $25 million of its stock by September and might buy another $25 million in stock by the end of the year. The companies said they planned to work together in areas like family entertainment, cards and personal-development products. Terms of the added investment by Hallmark have yet to be made final.

Golden Books also said it expected to record $80 million in restructuring and other charges in the second quarter of fiscal 1997.

As part of its new management's restructuring plans, Golden Books will divest itself of its paper and party-goods subsidiary, the Penn Corporation.