Children's Place, Disney amend remodel deal

SECAUCUS, N.J. The Children's Place Retail Stores today announced that it has agreed to a refurbishment amendment to a licensing deal it made with The Walt Disney Co. in June. The two companies originally entered into a license agreement in November 2004.

On June 8, The Children's Place announced that it had executed a letter agreement with Disney, which modified certain provisions of the parties' long-term license agreement, to address claims by Disney that The Children's Place had committed numerous material breaches of the license agreement. The June letter agreement imposed specific obligations on The Children's Place with respect to the remodeling and refreshing of numerous stores in the Disney Store chain between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2011 and, for the stores to be remodeled in fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008, set forth a detailed timetable for submission of plans and completion dates.

As previously announced on Aug. 23, The Children's Place had been unable to meet several of the deadlines set forth in the June letter agreement and identified various upcoming deadlines during the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2007 that it would likely miss. The company and Disney engaged in discussions regarding potential changes to the requirements of the June letter agreement that would postpone the due dates of certain of the company's remodel and maintenance obligations and require the company to remodel two additional stores. Following such discussions, the companies reached an agreement regarding an amended timeline for store remodels and ``maintenance refreshes.''