Embattled kids entertainment conglomerate Cinar has purchased Twin Sisters Productions, a privately held Akron, Ohio-based producer of kids educational audio and CD-ROM products. Cinar paid US$9 million for the seven-year-old company, which posted sales of US$4.5 million last year. The deal helps to solidify Cinar’s position in the educational and Christian Bookstore retail markets, where Twin Sisters sells a majority of its product, says Steve Carson, president of Cinar Education and Cinar subsidiary Carson-Dellosa Publishing. Though the two companies will now work more closely on future product development and cross-marketing initiatives, Carson says Cinar will not try to absorb Twin Sisters. The acquired company will remain stationed in Akron and continue to create and sell its products, like the audio CD series Infant Lullabies and Reading Readiness, under its own logo. Carson-Dellosa, however, will assume all distribution of Twin Sisters merch by the end of 2000. Carson also assures that Cinar’s acquisition of Twin Sisters won’t be affected by the recent internal strife that has befallen the Montreal-based company. (For more on Cinar’s problems, see ‘Cinar says troubles won’t slow production,’ page 34.)