The world's longest eyebrow hair and the biggest rice cake are just some of the wonders that can be found in Guinness World Records.

Now the owner of Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which runs a chain of museums displaying oddities from shrunken torsos to a two-headed stuffed calf, has acquired rights to these wonders from the Apax-owned Hit Entertainment, acquiring the Guinness World Records company for £60 million.

Jim Pattison, the Canadian billionaire, will acquire a 53-year-old business that now publishes its annual book in more than 100 countries and in 37 languages. The book has become a record-breaker in its own right as the world's bestselling copyright book.

Guinness World Records originated in 1951, when Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, went on a shooting party in North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford, Ireland. He became involved in an argument: which is the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse? He realised that a book supplying the answers to such a question might prove popular.

Sir Hugh's idea became reality when Norris and Ross McWhirter, who had been running a fact-finding agency in London, were commissioned to compile what became the Guinness Book of Records. The first edition was published on August 27, 1955, and went to the top of the British bestseller lists by Christmas that year. Its name was changed to Guinness World Records in 2000.

It is not the first time that the Jim Pattison Group has been linked with Guinness World Records. The group has owned the worldwide rights to the Guinness World Records museums and attractions for the past decade. There are six museums in four countries, in locations including Niagara Falls, Hollywood, San Antonio, Texas, Copenhagen and Tokyo.

“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, the president of Ripley, said.

Apax, which confirmed its acquisition of Hit Entertainment, the owner of Bob the Builder, Thomas & Friends and Pingu, in March 2005 for £490million, has been seeking buyers in recent months for a number of its assets. Sooty, the puppet, is also up for sale.

Three years since its acquisition, Apax may be considering whether to sell Hit or develop it through acquisitions. Companies such as Chorion, which owns Noddy, or Entertainment Rights, owner of Postman Pat, could be of interest, although Entertainment Rights has been in talks with interested parties and Hit is not one of them.

Ripley Entertainment is a global attractions company with annual attendances of more than 13million. In addition to its 60-plus attractions, the Orlando-based company has publishing and broadcast divisions that oversee projects including the globally syndicated Ripley's Believe It or Not! television show, bestselling books and a popular syndicated cartoon strip that runs daily in 200 newspapers in 42 countries. There are now 30 Ripley's Believe It or Not! museums, known as Odditoriums, with a new one scheduled to open in the Trocadero, Central London, in August. The Jim Pattison Group is Canada's third-largest private company, with sales of more than C$6.3billion (£3.2billion).

Business records

Richest person: John D. Rockefeller's wealth was estimated at about $900million in 1913, equivalent to $189.6billion (£114.39 billion) in today's terms

Greatest dispute regarding corporate tax: The largest tax dispute in history was settled between the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and GlaxoSmithKline on September 11, 2006. The pharmaceutical giant agreed to pay $3.1billion (£1.6billion) in taxes and interest payments after tax accounts going back 16 years were disputed by the IRS

Highest paid advertising executive: Sir Martin Sorrell, the head of the advertising company WPP, which also owns the advertising industry giant J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, is the world's highest-paid advertising executive with a salary of £17.1million in the year ending July 2006. Sir Martin's company generated revenues of over £4billion in the same period

Largest single e-commerce transaction: Mark Cuban, the American internet tycoon from Dallas, Texas, bought a Gulfstream V business jet over the internet in October 1999. The jet changed hands for $40million (£25million)

Most expensive internet address domain name: The internet domain name business.com was sold by the Texan entrepreneur Marc Ostrofsky on December 1, 1999, for £4.6million ($7.5million)

Source: Guinness World Records

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