Word: selchow
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Anyone who wanted to buy the toy company Selchow & Righter in 1984 would have paid an outsize price, like $200 million or so. At that time the company was hotter than hot, thanks to the board game it manufactures, Trivial Pursuit. But last week, when the company finally agreed to be sold, it went for a much smaller price: $75 million. The firm's acquirer: Coleco, the company that manufactures another smash hit, Cabbage Patch dolls...
...Selchow's value has fallen because Trivial Pursuit proved to be a fad. The manufacturer's annual sales of the game plunged from $400 million two years ago to roughly $50 million now, estimates Paul Valentine, a toy-industry analyst. In contrast, Coleco's Cabbage Patch annual sales rose 11% last year, to $600 million...
Psst! They passed with honors. Trivial Pursuit has already sold more than 11 million copies in its Genus, Sports, Silver Screen and new Baby Boomer editions, bringing in $400 million for Selchow & Righter, which is now manufacturing a million games a week to meet the demand. This fall stores will be inundated with Trivial Pursuit calendars, cartoon books and pencil caddies. ABC-TV is planning to air a Trivial Pursuit special. And in January the Queen Elizabeth II sets sail on an eight-day Trivial Pursuit cruise, with Abbott and the Haneys aboard...
...about $750 million to buy 22 million copies of what is turning out to be the hottest board game in history. That is more than twice as much as the total amount paid last year for all board games, including Trivial Pursuit. As a result of those extraordinary sales, Selchow & Righter, the American manufacturer, which is headed by Richard Selchow, has doubled its staff, started a new line of products and reorganized its headquarters...
...Selchow, which also manufactures Parcheesi and Scrabble, will launch its first Trivial Pursuit advertising campaign. The ads will ask frustrated consumers to be patient until the company can get more games into stores...