American Greetings

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American Greetings Corporation, Inc.
Type Public
Traded as NYSE: AM
Industry Greeting card publisher
Founded 1906
Founder(s) Jacob Sapirstein (1885-1987)
Headquarters Brooklyn, Ohio, U.S. (Cleveland, Ohio post office)
Key people Morry Weiss - Chairman; Zev Weiss - CEO & Director; Jeffrey M. Weiss - President, COO & Director Shmushy K. - Director;
Products Greeting cards, gift wrap, party goods, giftware, stationery, electronic greetings, calendars & educational products
Revenue IncreaseUS$1.695 Billion (FY 2012)[1]
Operating income DecreaseUS$149.57 Million (FY 2012)[1]
Net income DecreaseUS$57.198 Million (FY 2012)[1]
Total assets IncreaseUS$1.549 Billion (FY 2012)[1]
Total equity IncreaseUS$727.46 Million (FY 2012)[1]
Employees 27,500(Feb 2012)[1]
Website www.ag.com

American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly traded greeting card company. It is based in Brooklyn, Ohio[2] and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such as wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic expressive content (e.g., ringtones and images for cell phones). In addition to the American Greetings brand, the company owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts, Just For You, and Gibson brands of greeting cards.[1]

American Greetings is also famous for their toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland (now American Greetings Properties). The most-popular copyrighted properties owned by this division include Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears, The Get Along Gang, Popples and Holly Hobbie. American Greetings also holds an exclusive license for Nickelodeon characters.

Contents

History [edit]

Founded in 1906 by Polish immigrant Jacob Sapirstein (1885–1987), who sold cards from a horse-drawn cart, American Greetings has been run by members of the family since its inception. Irving I. Stone (Sapirstein's oldest son, who changed his surname to Stone) was stuffing envelopes at age five, handling the business during his father's illness when he was nine, and worked for the company full-time upon leaving high school. He was succeeded as CEO by his son-in-law Morry Weiss in 1987, and Stone took the title "Founder-Chairman" previously held by his father, when Weiss became chairman in 1992, before dying in 2000. In 1993, American Greetings began sponsoring the Entertainment Tonight "ET Birthdays", and remained sponsor until 2000, when competitor Hallmark Cards took over sponsorship.

In 2003 Morry Weiss's sons Zev and Jeffrey became CEO and President respectively; Morry Weiss remains Chairman. In early 2007, American Greetings replaced Kellogg's as the sponsor for Dragon Tales.[citation needed] American Greetings has also branched out onto the Internet, and owns a network of websites. On October 25, 2007, it announced the purchase of Webshots from CNET for $45 million in cash.[3]

In 2010 American Greetings announced plans to move their headquarters out of Brooklyn, Ohio to a new facility at Crocker Park within the nearby city of Westlake. (In 2013 the company announced a delay in moving its operation to Westlake. Construction had been scheduled to start in early 2013. American Greetings said it was only delaying the $150 to $200 million project, in light of the 2013 decision to take the business private.)

In 2013 the company decided to go private and remove itself from the public markets, agreeing to pay $18.20 per share, valuing the company at $878 million.[4]

Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears [edit]

In 2008, American Greetings announced the sale of its Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears properties to DIC Entertainment (now part of Cookie Jar Entertainment). However, on January 9, 2009. it was announced [1] that the planned sale had been called off. As a result, the properties remain under American Greetings' ownership as the company searches for a new buyer.

On March 24, 2009, MoonScoop offered to pay $95 million for the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake properties and related rights held by Cookie Jar. Under that deal, American Greetings would pocket $76 million for the animation assets while Cookie Jar would get $19 million for its own rights.[5]

On March 30, 2009, Cookie Jar made a $76 million counter bid for Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. Cookie Jar has until April 30, 2009 to complete a deal. If Cookie Jar fail to close a deal, MoonScoop had until June 7, 2009 to complete its own deal with American Greetings.[5]

In May 2009 American Greetings filed a $100 million lawsuit against Cookie Jar with Cookie Jar filing a $25 million countersuit against American Greetings over the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake deal.[6][7] In August, 2009 MoonScoop filed a lawsuit against American Greetings over the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake deal.[8][9]

Licenses [edit]

(Note: not all licenses are original creations by American Greetings. Some were licensed from third parties, where indicated)

Cartoonists [edit]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "American Greetings, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Apr 30, 2012". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 6, 2013. 
  2. ^ Cho, Janet (2010-01-07). "American Greetings may pull its world headquarters out of Brooklyn, Ohio". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved 2010-07-01. "BROOKLYN, Ohio -- American Greetings Corp., the nation's largest publicly held greeting card manufacturer, is exploring moving its global headquarters from Brooklyn to another community - maybe even out of state - with lower taxes." 
  3. ^ "American Greetings, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Dec 20, 2007". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 6, 2013. 
  4. ^ Cho, Janet H. (April 1, 2013). "American Greetings' Weiss Family Aims to Take the Company Private Again, Via an $878 Million Offer for Outstanding Shares". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved April 4, 2013. 
  5. ^ a b "American Greetings, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date Mar 30, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 6, 2013. 
  6. ^ "American Greetings, Form 8-K, Current Report, Filing Date May 12, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 6, 2013. 
  7. ^ "Brooklyn-based American Greetings accuses Cookie Jar Entertainment of bad faith in Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears deal". Cleveland. May 12, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-12. 
  8. ^ "American Greetings, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Oct 7, 2009". secdatabase.com. Retrieved Jan 6, 2013. 
  9. ^ "MoonScoop sues American Greetings over Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake". Cleveland. August 13, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-16. 

External links [edit]

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