Los Angeles

‘Power Rangers' Creator and Media Mogul Haim Saban Gets Walk of Fame Star

Haim Saban was honored with the 2,605th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday for his achievements in television.

Television personality Simon Cowell and music producer and songwriter David Foster joined Saban in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony in front of the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The ceremony comes two days before the release of the feature film "Saban's Power Rangers." The cast of the film, including Elizabeth Banks, attended the ceremony.

Saban is the creator and producer of the "Power Rangers" franchise, which debuted on American television in 1993 as "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" on the Fox Kids Network.

The series is in its 24th season domestically, now airing on Nickelodeon, making it one of the longest running and most-watched children's action series in television history. It also spawned one of the top-selling boys action toy lines in the U.S.

Saban is a native of Alexandria, Egypt. He immigrated to Israel when he was 12 years old, attending agricultural school, serving in the Israeli Defense Forces and building a tour promotion business.

Saban moved to France in 1975 where he established an independent record company. He moved to Los Angeles in 1983, starting a chain of recording studios and forming Saban Productions, which would be renamed in 1988 as Saban Entertainment, an international television, production, distribution and merchandising company.

The company produced a string of successful animated television series for children, several based on Marvel Comics characters. Saban formed Saban Capital Group, which in 2003 led a group of investors that acquired a controlling stake in ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Germany's largest broadcasting group.

SCG sold the group's controlling stake in the company in 2007 to private equity firms KKR and Permira. SCG teamed with Apax Partners and Arkin Communications in 2005 to acquire a controlling stake in Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Corp., Ltd., as part of the government's privatization of the company.

SCG teamed with a group of investors in 2007 to acquire the Spanish- language media company Univision Communications Inc.

Saban was 660th in the listing of the world's billionaires released Monday by Forbes with a net worth of $3 billion.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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