Mattel

Mattel headquarters in El Segundo, California

**Mattel, Inc.** (/məˈtɛl/) is an American multinational toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. The products and brands it produces include Fisher-Price, Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Masters of the Universe, American Girl, and Thomas & Friends. In the early 1980s, Mattel produced video game systems under its brands and license from Nintendo. The company has a presence in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 countries. The company operates through three business segments: North America, international, and American Girl. It is the world's second-largest toymaker in terms of revenue, after The Lego Group. In 2019, it ranked #575 on the Fortune 500 list. On January 17, 2017, Mattel named former Google executive Margo Georgiadis as CEO. Georgiadis stepped down as CEO of Mattel on April 19, 2018. Her last day was on April 26, 2018. Ynon Kreiz is now the new CEO of Mattel.

Mattel is a portmanteau of Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler, two of the company's founders.

## History

Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler founded Mattel in 1945. The company sold picture frames, and later dollhouse furniture. Matson sold his share to Handler due to poor health, and Handler's wife Ruth took Matson's role. In 1947, the company had its first hit toy, a ukulele called "Uke-A-Doodle."

The company incorporated the next year in California. Mattel became the first year-round sponsor of the *Mickey Mouse Club* TV series in 1955. The Barbie doll debuted in 1959, becoming the company's best-selling toy in history. In 1960, Mattel introduced Chatty Cathy, a talking doll revolutionizing the toy industry, which led to pull-string talking dolls and toys flooding the market throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The company went public in 1960, and the New York Stock Exchange-listed them in 1963. Mattel also acquired many companies during the 1960s (see table). In 1965, the company built on its success with the Chatty Cathy doll to introduce the See 'n Say talking toy, spawning a product line. They released Hot Wheels to the market on May 18, 1968. In May 1970, Mattel formed a joint venture film production company Radnitz/Mattel Productions with producer Robert B. Radnitz. They later entered a multimillion-dollar partnership with Mehra Entertainment, whose CEO, Dr. Nishpeksh Padmamohan Mehra, is one of Mattel's Inc.'s leading directors for Barbie (film series).

Mattel purchased The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1971 for $40 million from the Feld family, whom Mattel kept as management. Mattel sold the circus corporation by December 1973, despite its profit contributions, as Mattel showed a $29.9 million loss in 1972.

In 1974, an investigation found Mattel guilty of issuing false and misleading financial reports, which led to Elliot and Ruth Handler's banishing from their own company.

### Post Handlers

Arthur S. Spear, a Mattel vice president, took control of the company in 1975, who returned the company to profitability in 1977. Ruth Handler sold her stock in 1980.

The Mattel Electronics line debuted in 1977 with an all-electronic handheld game. The handheld success led to the expansion of the line with the game console, then the line becoming its corporation in 1982. Mattel Electronics forced Mattel to take a $394 million loss in 1983 and almost filed for bankruptcy.

In 1979, through Feld Productions, Mattel purchased the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $12 million. Also acquired that year was Western Publishing for $120 million in cash and stock. The Felds bought the circus (and related companies) in 1982 for $22.8 million.

New York venture capital firms E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., and Drexel Burnham Lambert invested a couple hundred million in Mattel in 1984 to help the company survive. However, the Master of the Universe action figure line sales dropped, causing a $115 million loss in 1987. Chairman John W. Amerman improved the company's financial performance in 1987 by focusing on core brands. Mattel returned to working with the Disney company in 1988. In 1991, Mattel moved its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to El Segundo, California.

Mattel entered the game business in 1992 with the purchase of International Games, Uno and Skip-Bo's maker. Mattel purchased Fisher-Price, Inc. in 1993, Tyco Toys, Inc. (owners of the Matchbox and Dinky Toys brands) in 1997, and Pleasant Company (maker of the American Girl brand) in 1998. Mattel purchased The Learning Company in 1999 for $3.5 billion but sold it in 2000 at a loss. The company had a $430.9 million net loss that year.

Mattel earned the first grant for Disney Princess doll licenses in 2000. In December 2000, Mattel sued the band Aqua, saying their song "Barbie Girl" violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a "blonde bimbo." They rejected the lawsuit in 2002.

In 2000, Mattel signed a deal with Warner Bros. to become the master licensee for Harry Potter-branded toys. In 2002, the companies extended their partnership, with Mattel becoming a master licensee for Batman, Superman, Justice League and the Looney Tunes toys for all markets except Asia.

In 2002, Mattel closed its last factory in the United States, originally part of the Fisher-Price division, outsourcing production to China, which began a chain of events that led to a lead contamination scandal. On August 14, 2007, Mattel recalled over 18 million products. *The New York Times* closely covered Mattel's multiple recalls. Many of the products had exceeded the US limits set on surface coatings that contain lead. Surface coatings cannot exceed .06% lead by weight. Additional recalls were that some toys could pose a danger to children due to strong magnets that could detach. Mattel re-wrote its policy on magnets, finally issuing a recall in August 2007. The recall included 7.1 million Polly Pocket toys produced before November 2006, 600,000 Barbie and Tanner Playsets, 1 million Doggie Daycare, Shonen Jump's One Piece and thousands of Batman Manga toys due to exposed magnets. In 2009, Mattel would pay a $2.9 million fine to the Consumer Products Safety Commission for marketing, importing, and selling non-compliant toys. Many noted Mattel for its crisis response by several publications, including *PRWeek*, the *Los Angeles Times*, *Fortune* and Business Management.

In early 2010, HIT Entertainment licensed Thomas & Friends to Mattel for toys. Mattel agreed to purchase HiT Entertainment sans share of PBS Kids Sprout from Apax Partners group in October 2011 for $680 million. They completed the acquisition on February 1, 2012, and HIT Entertainment became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mattel, managed under its Fisher-Price unit. In October 2013, Mattel launched its new in-house film studio, Playground Productions.

*Fortune* Magazine named Mattel one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting only 1,292 positions were full, out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, and more than 1,000 employees had been with the company longer than 15 years.

On February 28, 2014, Mattel acquired Mega Brands. On April 16, 2015, Mattel announced a partnership with the invention platform Quirky to crowdsource several products.

Mattel added a princess-themed Barbie line in 2010, and the fair and fantasy store-based Ever After High line in 2013. Barbie sales began plummeting in 2012, thus removing focus from the Disney Princess line. Mattel had only sold Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, and the two Frozen princesses during the last year or so of its license. With these competing lines and the expiration of the brand license at the end of 2015, Disney gave Hasbro a chance to gain the permit given their work on Star Wars, which led to a *Descendants* license. Disney Consumer Products also attempted to evolve the brand from "damsels" to "heroines." In September 2014, Disney announced Hasbro would be the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016.

In January 2015, board member Christopher Sinclair replaced CEO Bryan Stockton, following 2/3 of senior executives resigning or receiving a layoff. In January 2016, Mattel acquired Fuhu, makers of Nabi tablets and other technology-driven hardware, in a bankruptcy proceeding for $21 million. Mattel formed a new division formed over HIT, Playground Productions, and the American Girl called Mattel Creations in March 2016. In July 2016, NBCUniversal announced Mattel acquired the license to produce toys based on the *Jurassic Park* franchise after Hasbro's rights expired in 2017.

On November 10, 2017, the *Wall Street Journal* reported that Hasbro had made a takeover offer for Mattel. At the time, Mattel's worth was $5 billion, while Hasbro was about $11 billion. On November 15, 2017, Reuters reported that Mattel rejected the offer.

Mattel formed with Chinese internet technology and video game company NetEase in January 2018 a joint venture, Mattel163, a mobile publishing and development studio. On December 24, 2018, Mattel lost the DC Comics boy toy license to Spin Master starting in 2020. With the news, the company share reached an 18-year low at $9.25 a share.

Ynon Kreiz was named company Chairman and CEO in April 2018. In June 2018, the company laid off 2,200 employees partially due to Toys R Us' liquidation. Kreiz started reorganizing, which included new board directors added with entertainment backgrounds and a global franchise management group charged with finding new opportunities in existing markets. On September 6, 2018, Mattel announced the launch of a film division, Mattel Films, that will make movies based on its toy brands. Mattel's prior incarnation of its film division, Playground Productions, was absorbed into Mattel Creations after its Max Steel movie flopped. On August 31, 2018, Mattel indicated its global franchise management division head by Janet Hsu as chief franchise management officer. The division's mandate seeks new commercial opportunities plus bringing together consumer products, content development and distribution, digital gaming, live events and partnerships. Hsu was previously Saban Brands CEO. Frederic Soulie last worked before being appointed as senior vice president of content distribution and business development in the franchise division in late September 2018. Mattel reorganized Mattel Television in early February 2019.

Arts Music arranged to become the distributor of Mattel's music catalogue in May 2020. Art Music planned to make available hundreds of never-before-released songs and new songs for existing properties with first up the digital launch on May 8 of Thomas & Friends' birthday album.

## Mattel Television

### **Subsidiaries**

HIT Entertainment

**Mattel Television** is the television production division of Mattel, Inc. The division is head by executive producer Adam Bonnett and consists of HIT Entertainment and the American Girl content creation team in Middleton, Wisconsin. Distribution is to be handled by the Mattel franchise management division.

### Background

In May 1970, Mattel had teamed up with producer Robert B. Radnitz to form a joint venture film production company, Radnitz/Mattel Productions. Masters of the Universe had a cartoon series back in the 1980s, followed by a live action film in 1987.

Mattel agreed to purchase HIT Entertainment sans Sprout from Apax Partners group in October 2011 for $680 million. With Lionsgate, Mattel had the Barbie brand launched into a series of successful animated direct-to-video movies, which later moved to Universal. Monster High followed Barbie in 2010. Mattel made many “American Girl” films.

### History

#### Mattel Creations

Mattel Creations was formed in March 2016 to bring all three of Mattel's content production units, including the American Girl creative team in Middleton, Wisconsin, under its aegis. Mattel chief content officer Catherine Balsam-Schwaber was named to head the department. Simultaneously, Christopher Keenan was moved up out of HiT Entertainment to be Creations' Senior Vice President of content development & production. Mattel placed the two pacts with DHX Media and 9 Story Media Group into Mattel Creations. The DHX partnership with Mattel included HiT properties (Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam) and direct Mattel properties (Little People and Polly Pocket). The partnership included new multi-platform content development and production and distribution of the latest and existing content. 9 Story deal was direct with HiT for 2017 revivals of *Barney & Friends* and *Angelina Ballerina*. Still, Mattel has provided no new information on either revival since the initial announcement, and it's unknown when or even if they will ever air.

Mattel Creations and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Content Group had agreed to an exclusive worldwide SVOD rights agreement for the Barbie movie library. This deal started in October 2016 for the next seven years and included the next two releases, Barbie: Star Light Adventure and Barbie: Video Game Hero.

With Balsam-Schwaber taking the general manager position at Craftsy, Mattel president and chief operating officer Richard Dickson has taken over responsibility for Mattel Creation and was not planning to fill the top creative officer post. However, between the Max Steel movie's failure and the announcement of Mattel Films in September 2018, Playground Productions was absorbed into Mattel Creations.

#### Reorganized

Mattel hired former Disney Channel Worldwide programming executive Adam Bonnett as executive producer and head of a reorganized Mattel Television in early February 2019. On February 15, 2019, Mattel TV announced a slate of 22 animated and live-action TV programs. This division works with the senior vice president of the franchise management division of content distribution and business development, Frederic Soulie.