Word: mattell
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...figuring out who exactly is more deluded), you have the returning Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (now officially married), Slinky Dog, the incontinent Hamm, the still neurotic Rex and the ever-prone-to-PDA Bo Peep. The sequel adds a few new ones--most notably, Barbie (Mattel realized they lost a major marketing chance when they refused to let Pixar use their infamously-proportioned doll in the first film). Also in the fray are Wayne Knight's villainous Al McWhiggen, a proprieter of a nearby toy store who dreams of selling Woody to a Japanese museum (why Japanese? Exhibit...
...mail baby pictures to Grandpa Jim. Edit those corny home movies on your PC. There are lots of reasons to go digital now, but the best one is price. Mattel's NickClick, an entry-level digital camera for kids, is just $70, and digital camcorders have slipped below $1,000. Shopping sites like mysimon.com show prices way under list. With digital imaging becoming so affordable, companies are making it practical too. Home photo printers are easy to use, and video cameras' high-speed FireWire ports move huge video files to your computer fast. The big picture is only getting better...
Lately that strategy has begun to look flawed for Mattel, which announced that its third-quarter earnings would be 55% lower than its projected $280 million, largely because of an acquisition gone wrong. Investors bolted, and the stock dropped to $11.69 a share from its November high of $40.50. Analysts rushed to downgrade the company as it became apparent that CEO Jill Barad, 48, the marketer who remade the Barbie line into one of toyland's most formidable franchises, was looking less capable when it came to operational details...
...immediate problem was $100 million in inventory, which Mattel thought had been sold, that mysteriously reappeared on the books at Learning Co. Oops. That turned an expected $50 million profit at the newly acquired division into a loss of $50 million to $100 million...
...look at some of the hit toys of the past few years--Super Soakers, Air Hogs, Beanie Babies, Furby, even Gus Gutz. They came from small companies with no movie licensing tie-ins. That's bad news for Mattel's Barad. She needs a hot toy this holiday season more than any six-year-old does. Otherwise, the only thing Barad may get for Christmas is fired...