A federal jury in Riverside, Calif., delivered a Hollywood ending for Celador International and its lawyers at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi on Wednesday, awarding the company $269.2 million in its suit against the Walt Disney Co. over royalties from the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
Celador created “Millionaire” over a decade ago and sold the U.S. rights to the hit show to Disney’s ABC network in 1999. But since at least 2004 Celador has been battling Disney over allegations that ABC and another Disney unit engaged in a byzantine “Hollywood accounting” scheme to hide profits from the show and avoid sharing them with Celador.
