Canadian billionaire buys Guinness book

OTTAWA: Canadian billionaire Jimmy Pattison has bought the storied Guinness World Records book from Britain’s HIT Entertainment for an undisclosed price, his company said on Friday.

According to British newspapers, the sale sum was £60 million ($180 million).

Jim Pattison Group holdings already include Ripley Entertainment Inc, which has operated Guinness World Records attractions for more than a decade.

“The coming together of Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! creates an historic combination of the world-leading authorities on records and record-breaking, and all that is unbelievable,” Jim Pattison Jr. said in a statement on behalf of the Group.

There are six Guinness World Records museums in Tokyo, Japan; Niagara Falls, Canada; Hollywood, California; San Antonio, Texas; Gatlinburg, Tennessee; and in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ripley’s operates 30 “Odditoriums” worldwide, as well as broadcasting and publishing divisions.

Jim Pattison Group touts itself as Canada’s third largest private company with annual sales of $6.3 billion and 29,000 employees, in the automotive, media, packaging, food sales and distribution, entertainment and financial sectors.

For the record, according to Forbes magazine, Jimmy Pattison is the world’s 230th richest person and Canada’s eighth richest, worth $3.8-billion.

First published in 1955, Guinness World Records has developed its annual book into an international phenomenon published in more than 100 countries and 37 languages. It was commissioned by the Guinness brewing company.
According to the book’s website, the brewery’s manager went on a hunting party and became embroiled in an argument about whether the grouse or the golden plover was Europe’s fastest game bird.

“He realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular,” the website says. “He was right!”