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In December 2011, the non-partisan organization ] criticized '''Mattel''' for spending $0.84 million on ]<ref>{{cite web|title=Annual Lobbying by Mattel|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000571&year=2009|publisher=]|accessdate=December 26, 2011}}</ref> and ] during 2008–2010, instead getting $9 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $1 billion, and increasing executive pay by 32% to $22.5 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.<ref>{{cite web|last=Portero|first=Ashley|title=30 Major U.S. Corporations Paid More to Lobby Congress Than Income Taxes, 2008–2010|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/264481/20111209/30-major-u-s-corporations-paid-lobby.htm|publisher=]|accessdate=December 26, 2011|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/64D9GyQG0|archivedate=December 26, 2011}}</ref> In December 2011, the non-partisan organization ] criticized '''Mattel''' for spending $0.84 million on ]<ref>{{cite web|title=Annual Lobbying by Mattel|url=http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000571&year=2009|publisher=]|accessdate=December 26, 2011}}</ref> and ] during 2008–2010, instead getting $9 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $1 billion, and increasing executive pay by 32% to $22.5 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.<ref>{{cite web|last=Portero|first=Ashley|title=30 Major U.S. Corporations Paid More to Lobby Congress Than Income Taxes, 2008–2010|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/264481/20111209/30-major-u-s-corporations-paid-lobby.htm|publisher=]|accessdate=December 26, 2011|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/64D9GyQG0|archivedate=December 26, 2011}}</ref>


In May 2013 Mattel partnered with Scrabble-EA to replace the Scrabble app on Facebook.{{cn|date=June 2013}} In May 2013 Mattel partnered with Scrabble-EA to replace the Scrabble app on Facebook that had attracted a happy community over the years. They deleted all the stats, friends and games of the community and put up an app inferior to the previous app run by Gamehouse. The community were outraged. They boycotted buying Mattel products until their game was reinstated. {{cn|date=June 2013}}


Mattel was named by '']'' magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting that only 1,292 positions were newly filled out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, as well as the fact that more than 1,000 employees have been with the company longer than 15 years.<ref>http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/snapshots/96.html?iid=bc_lp_arrow1</ref> Mattel was named by '']'' magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting that only 1,292 positions were newly filled out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, as well as the fact that more than 1,000 employees have been with the company longer than 15 years.<ref>http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/snapshots/96.html?iid=bc_lp_arrow1</ref>

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Mattel, Inc.
Company typePublic company
Traded asNasdaq: MAT
NASDAQ-100 Component
S&P 500 Component
IndustryToys and games
Founded1945
FounderHarold Matson
Elliot Handler
HeadquartersEl Segundo, California, US
Key peopleBryan G. Stockton
(Chairman and CEO)
RevenueIncrease US$ 6.2 billion (FY 2011)
Operating incomeIncrease US$ 1.0 billion (FY 2011)
Net incomeIncrease US$ 768 million (FY 2011)
Total assetsIncrease US$ 5.6 billion (FY 2011)
Total equityDecrease US$ 2.6 billion (FY 2011)
Number of employees28,000 (December 2011)
SubsidiariesFisher-Price, HIT Entertainment
WebsiteMattel.com
Mattel headquarters in El Segundo, California.

Mattel, Inc. /məˈtɛl/ is a toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. In 2008, it ranked #413 on the Fortune 500. The products and brands it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Monster High dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, WWE Toys, and early-1980s video game systems.

The company's name is derived from Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler, who founded the company in 1945. Handler's wife, Ruth Handler, later became president, and she is credited with establishing the Barbie product line for the company in 1959. After the release of the Barbie doll, Mattel revolutionized the toy industry with its talking dolls and toys. Major successes in the 1960s with the talking Chatty Cathy doll in 1960 and See 'N Say toys in 1965 moved Mattel to its position as the number one toymaker in America.

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 scandal involving lead contamination. On Friday, September 3, 2010, a small-scale "Flash Crash" appears to have occurred in Mattel shares which plunged 22% in pre-market trade for no apparent reason, only to recover shortly thereafter.

History

In May 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Mattel acquired The Learning Company for $3.5 billion in stock or 4.5 times annual sales. The Learning Company was considered at the time one of the leading entertainment and educational software companies, owner of such titles as "Reader Rabbit", "Carmen Sandiego", and "Myst", but had in 1997 accumulated losses of $475 million. Mattel thought that this acquisition would help business diversification by giving the company a leading position in the market of consumer software. Mattel CEO Jill Barad expected to have direct internet sales for all Mattel's toys and predicted that Mattel sales over the Internet would reach $1 billion in a few years.

In the third quarter of 1999, Mattel expected The Learning Company to post $50 million in profits but in reality it posted losses of $105 million. Despite this loss, CEO Jill Barad continued to be optimistic. Things worsened in the fourth quarter, as The Learning Company's pre-tax losses reached $183 million. For the year The Learning Company's pre-taxes losses were $206 million, on revenues of $750 million. The Learning Company's losses depressed Mattel's 1999 profits and as a result, Mattel posted a $82 million net loss compared to a $206 million net income in 1998. Mattel also warned that it would take a revamping charge of $75 million to $100 million in the first quarter of 2000 because of The Learning Company.

By 2000, Mattel was losing $1.5 million a day with The Learning Company, and Mattel's stock price (which reached a high of $45 in March 1998) traded at $11 in February 2000. Under pressure, on February 3, Mattel's CEO Jill Barad resigned but received a $50 million severance package. In April Mattel announced that it was selling The Learning Company; analysts predicted that The Learning Company could be sold for $400 million, then for $200 million. In the end, in October, The Learning Company was sold to Gores Technology for nothing other than a percentage of The Learning Company's future profits. In addition Mattel cut 10% of its workforce to further cut costs. As a result of this restructuring Mattel posted a net loss of $430 million for the year 2000.

Mattel sued the band Aqua, saying their song violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a "Blonde Bimbo." The lawsuit was finally rejected in 2002.

In December 2002, Mattel announcing a $122-million settlement with shareholders over its purchase of Learning Co. The company's stock is estimated to have fallen more than 65% as a result of the acquisition, losing an estimated $2.5 billion in shareholder value. CEO Jill Barad, who presided over the acquisition left Mattel with $50-million severance package for two years of employment, said to be unpopular with shareholders.

In March 2005, Mattel partnered with Oasys Mobile to extend their market into the mobile field. The partnership was announced on March 16, 2005, and gave Oasys Mobile the right to produce games on such licenses as UNO, Ker Plunk!, Toss Across, and Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Since then the two have worked together to add such licenses as the Barbie, Magic 8 Ball and Max Steel IPs to Oasys' portfolio. These subsequent partnerships also extended the territories in which they could market their products. The new markets included Japan and Taiwan for the Barbie license and Japan, China, Korea, India, and the Philippines for the UNO license.

On August 2, 2007, Mattel's Fisher-Price subsidiary recalled almost one million Chinese-made toys, including Dora the Explorer and Sesame Street toys, because of potential hazards from parts of the toys which were colored using lead-based paint that may have exceeded the US Federal limit of 600 parts per million. In worst cases, Mattel toys' lead in paint was found to be 180 times the limit. The paint on the toys was up to 11% lead, or 110,000 parts per million. U.S. Federal law allows just 0.06% lead, or 600 parts per million. Children who suck on or ingest toys or jewelry with high lead content may be poisoned, which can lead to learning and behavior problems, even death in some cases. On September 21, 2007, Mattel's Executive Vice-President for worldwide operations, Thomas Debrowski, traveled to Beijing. In a meeting with China's product safety chief, Li Chanjiang, Debrowski took full responsibility for the magnet recalls and said that, "vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers." Reading a prepared text, he continued, "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of your customers who received the toys." Among others, Fortune magazine rated the debacle involving recalls of Chinese products, including Mattel's products, as one of the 'Dumbest Moments' in business for 2007.

On August 14, 2007, Mattel recalled over 18 million products because it was possible that they could pose a danger to children due to the use of strong magnets that may detach. Strong small magnets could be dangerous to the children if two or more were ingested, attracting each other in the intestines and causing damage. Some instances were reported. A child swallowed a Polly Pocket toy magnet and had to undergo a surgery. At the time of the recall, none of the U.S. or European safety legislation and standards addressed the specific hazard of strong magnets. Some of the products had been available in U.S. stores since 2003, during which time Mattel did not consider them harmful enough to warrant a recall. After incidents with similar magnetic toy parts being swallowed, causing perforation of the intestines, Mattel re-wrote its policy on magnets, finally issuing this 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.

Mattel was involved in legal proceedings with Super Duper Publications in an attempt to suppress Super Duper's use of the words "and say" in their therapy products. Super Duper Publications specializes in materials for use in special education classrooms but Mattel accused Super Duper of diluting their "See N' Say" product line. Mattel won the legal battle and was awarded $400,000 in penalties. They are now seeking millions of dollars to pay for their legal expenses and costs.

Mattel Inc. defeated MGA Entertainment Inc. in a conflict over the creation of the Bratz doll line. The U.S. District Court in Riverside ruled in July 2008 that Bratz designer CEO, Carter Bryant, violated the terms of his exclusivity contract with Mattel. It was decided that he created the Bratz doll concept while he was working for Mattel. This decision will lead to the possibility for Mattel to claim right to the Bratz doll line as well as the right to receive damages.

In late 2009, Mattel signed a deal to make WWE toys starting in 2010. The deal has proven to be successful for WWE, garnering nearly $52 million in toy and related merchandise sales in 2010, compared to $44.7 million the previous year. Zhang Shuhong, co-owner of the Lee Der Toy Company, which had made a number of toys for Mattel, committed suicide by hanging himself at one of his company's factories in Foshan on August 11, 2007, according to authorities. Lee Der ceased business.

Over a year after the lead paint scandal it was reported Mattel had recalled a total of 21 million toys from China as a result of the lead paint and magnets. In December 2008 Mattel reached a settlement with 39 states to pay $12 million. The money is to be used by the states to educate the public about the dangers of lead paint and lead poisoning. On June 5, 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission fined Mattel and its Fisher-Price division $2.3 million for violation of Code 16 of Federal Regulations CFR 1303, the Federal lead paint ban. While Mattel agreed to the fine, no wrongdoing was admitted on the company's part.

On June 8, 2011, Greenpeace launched "Barbie, It's Over", an international campaign criticising Mattel's use of Asia Pulp & Paper's products in its packaging, particularly in its line of Barbie products. Within two days of the campaign's start, Mattel ordered its packaging suppliers to stop buying from Asia Pulp & Paper pending an investigation into Greenpeace's deforestation allegations, and further ordered its suppliers to report on how they source materials.

In April 2011, Mattel was forced to pay $88.5 million to MGA Entertainment in a dispute over the Bratz line of dolls. In the court ruling, the judges found that Mattel did not own drawings of Bratz dolls. The Bratz dolls hurt the sales of Barbie dolls significantly over the period of time that the Bratz dolls were on the market.

In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Mattel for spending $0.84 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008–2010, instead getting $9 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $1 billion, and increasing executive pay by 32% to $22.5 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.

In May 2013 Mattel partnered with Scrabble-EA to replace the Scrabble app on Facebook that had attracted a happy community over the years. They deleted all the stats, friends and games of the community and put up an app inferior to the previous app run by Gamehouse. The community were outraged. They boycotted buying Mattel products until their game was reinstated.

Mattel was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting that only 1,292 positions were newly filled out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, as well as the fact that more than 1,000 employees have been with the company longer than 15 years.

Mattel Electronics

History

In the early 1980s, Mattel – through its M Network division – released game cartridges for Atari 2600 consoles. However, once Atari began to release cartridges for Mattel's Intellivision console, Mattel filed a lawsuit against Atari alleging theft of Mattel's trade secrets.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Mattel 2011 Annual Report, Form 10-K, Filing Date Feb 23, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved July 8, 2012.
  2. "Fortune 500 List (2008)". Fortune. May 5, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  3. "CTV article on recall". Ctv.ca. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  4. Mark (September 3, 2010). "Mark's Market Analysis". Marksmarketanalysis.com. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  5. ^ "Mattel sells Learning Co. – Buy high, sell low". Los Angeles Business Journal. January 1, 2001. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  6. ^ "Learning from Mattel" (PDF). Tuck School of Business. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  7. Cullen, Drew (December 15, 1998). "Barbie pulls Carmen Sandiego". The Register. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  8. ^ Dignan, Larry (December 14, 1998). "Mattel/The Learning Co. in $3.8B merger". ZDNet news. Archived from the original on December 23, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
  9. ^ "Mattel Learns Hard Lesson With Learning Co". Boston.internet.com. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  10. ^ "MATTEL INC /DE/ – MAT Unscheduled Material Events (8-K) EXHIBIT 99.0". Sec.edgar-online.com. February 3, 2000. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  11. ^ Hays, Constance L. (February 4, 2000). "Chief of Mattel Steps Down After Reporting Loss in 1999". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  12. "Technology Briefing: Software; Former Mattel Learning Company Unit Improves". The New York Times. March 6, 2001. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  13. ^ Johnson, Grant (October 2, 2000). "Mattel To Sell Learning Co". Directmag.com. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  14. "2000 Annual Shareholder Report" (PDF). March 22, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 9, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  15. "Barbie loses battle over bimbo image". BBC News. July 25, 2002. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
  16. ^ Mattel Settles Shareholders Lawsuit for $122 Million latimes.com| December 6, 2002|Abigail Goldman
  17. Pay Without Performance by Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried, Harvard University Press 2004 p.133
  18. Summus and Mattel Join Forces to Deliver Classic Games to Wireless – Mobile Game Developer Magazine
  19. "Bnet financial statement on Mattel Partnership". Findarticles.com. 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  20. "Fisher-Price Recalls Licensed Character Toys Due To Lead Poisoning Hazard". Cpsc.gov. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  21. Mattel to recall more Chinese-made toys
  22. ^ O'Donnell, Jayne (September 18, 2007). "lead 180 times the limit". USA Today. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  23. Mattel Apologizes to China Over Recalls
  24. Bapuji, Hari; Beamish, Paul W. (2007). "Toy Recalls – Is China Really the Problem?" (PDF). Canada Asia Commentary. Vol. 45. Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. ISSN 1481-0433. OCLC 45133004. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2007.
  25. "apology"
  26. "Mattel apologizes to China". CBS News. September 22, 2007.
  27. "101 Dumbest Moments in Business – 1. China". Fortune. January 16, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  28. ^ "Mattel to announce toy recall". Service.mattel.com. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  29. "Small Special Education Company Battles Mattel Over Right to Use the Words "AND SAY" on Its Products". Mass Media Distribution Wire. May 8, 2008. Retrieved May 14, 2008.
  30. "Mattel's "Spin" – Blame Small Special Education Company Super Duper – They Made Us Sue Them". Mass Media Distribution Wire. May 19, 2008. Retrieved May 19, 2008.
  31. Colker, David (July 18, 2008). "Mattel wins important verdict in Bratz dolls case". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 18, 2008.
  32. Graser, Marc (August 11, 2011). "WWE's toys get a grip", Variety. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
  33. "Chinese toy boss 'kills himself'". BBC News. August 13, 2007. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  34. Brand China' at risk after toy recall – Quentin Somerville, BBC News. August 15, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
  35. "Mattel settles with 39 states over tainted toys". The Associated Press. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  36. Kavilanz, Parija B. (June 5, 2009). "Mattel fined $2.3 million over lead in toys". CNN/Money. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  37. Anne, Sarah (February 7, 2011). "Greenpeace protests Barbie at Mattel headquarters – BlogPost". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  38. Roosevelt, Margot (June 10, 2011). "Pressured by Greenpeace, Mattel cuts off sub-supplier APP". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
  39. http://money.msn.com/investment-advice/article.aspx?post=cffaa903-f50d-4596-961c-a55085010c17&GT1=33036
  40. "Annual Lobbying by Mattel". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  41. Portero, Ashley. "30 Major U.S. Corporations Paid More to Lobby Congress Than Income Taxes, 2008–2010". International Business Times. Archived from the original on December 26, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  42. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2013/snapshots/96.html?iid=bc_lp_arrow1
  43. Herman, Leonard (1997). Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. Rolenta Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-9643848-2-5.

52. Kettelkamp, Sean; Chatty Cathy and Her Talking Friends, Schiffer Publishing (1998)

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