Information AboutMattel |
Mattel Inc. () is an American toy company and is the largest toy company based on revenue. Its products include Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, American Girl dolls, Board Game s, and, in the early 1980s, Video Game Console s. It was founded in 1945 by Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler (hence the name "matt-el"). Handler's wife Ruth Handler would later become president and is credited with establishing the Barbie product line for the company in 1959 . Today the Barbie line is responsible for more than 80% of Mattel's profits. Mattel has been forced to issue major recalls of it's products due to reliance on sub-standard Chinese manufacturing and raw materials that have been shown to pose dangerous and deadly threats to consumers. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Corporate leadership
Board of directors Current members of the Board Of Directors of Mattel Inc. are:
HISTORY The company originally produced picture frames and dolls house accessories from picture frame scraps. With the success of its dolls house accessories, the company turned its attention to toys. The company became publicly traded in 1960 . Although it has never accepted responsibility, Mattel has often been accused of stealing ideas for their toy-lines. For example in the 1980s the company held a contest to invent a character for their He-Man line. The winner was to receive a college scholarship and their idea was to become an actual toy. The toy idea that won (a Camera-Headed figure) was never produced. Mattel instead took ideas from children who did not win, such as Mosquitor, which was produced and sold quite well. Throughout its history, the company has been criticized for exploiting the same children that they sell their toys to. Mattel was the original sponsor of Matty's Funday Funnies from 1959 to 1962. Throughout the 1960s, Mattel diversified its lineup by purchasing smaller toy companies that produced unrelated toy product lines. In 1966 , Mattel purchased a small manufacturer of low-quality plastic lunchboxes. Mattel began exploring ideas for using this company's processes to make new products out of formed plastic. An employee noted that Matchbox was producing a line of die-cast cars but that the cars' wheels didn't roll well. Mattel created a competing line of small toy cars using superior bearings that enabled the new cars to roll further. They paired this advantage with formed plastic technology from the acquired company that allowed Mattel to develop innovative chassis that excited their target market, boys. This resulted in the very successful Hot Wheels line. Another acquisition allowed Mattel to make the diecast chassis that were light and could be painted with bright colors. An independent audit of Mattel, released on November 3 , 1975 , revealed that company officials had fabricated Press Release s and financial information to "maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth." In 1978 Mattel began development of the Intellivision , a videogame console to compete with Atari VCS . The videogame system was released in 1979 under the branding Mattel Electronics . By the time of the release it was the most powerful console on the market. In 1987, Mattel distributed the NES in Europe, as Nintendo at the time did not have a European office. The early European versions of the NES were called the Mattel Version, while later versions distributed by Nintendo were called the NES Version. The only difference between the two was "Mattel" or "NES" branding under Nintendo Entertainment System 'badge' on the face of the console. Between 1986 and 1990, Mattel was also responsible for marketing NES products in Canada, producing bilingual packages, and co-branding them. However, many gray-market American packages were also sold in Canada, which caused Mattel to sue Nintendo. Nintendo eventually took over sole distribution of for North America. In 1993 , Mattel bought the Fisher-Price toy company. In 1996 , Mattel purchased Tyco Toys , then the third largest toy manufacturer. In 1999, the ill-advised purchase of a major software publisher, TLC, for $3.6 billion led to the ousting of chief executive Jill Barad (See Brøderbund .) In 2006 , Mattel purchased Radica USA , an electronic toy manufacturer. Mattel serves as the parent company for American Girl (formerly Pleasant Company), Radica USA , and Fisher-Price . Currently, it is headquartered in El Segundo, California . 2007 PRODUCT RECALLS On August 2, 2007, Mattel's Fisher-Price unit recalled almost a million Chinese-made toys, including ''Dora the Explorer'' and ''Sesame Street'' toys because of possible hazards due to the toys being coated in lead-based paint. "Fisher-Price Recalls Licensed Character Toys Due To Lead Poisoning Hazard" On August 14 2007 , Mattel recalled over 18 million products because it was possible that they they could pose a danger to children. The products were manufactured in China did not conform to safety standards (see Chinese National Standards and China Compulsory Certification ). Some of the products had been avilable in US stores since 2003, during which time Mattel did not flag them up as being harmful enough to warrant a recall. [http://service.mattel.com/us/recall/default.asp?recall_id=52431 Mattel to announce toy recall] Recalled items included die-cast '' Cars '' character, Sarge , made between May and July 2007, were found to have to have been manufactured using paint containing higher than acceptable levels of lead (436,000 recalled globally), 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 . 18.2 million items were recalled in total. The Lead-based Paint recall was similar to Fisher-Price , a Subsidiary of Mattel, two weeks earlier. On August 1 , 2007 Mattel recalled Sesame Street 's Big Bird and Elmo , and Nickelodeon 's Dora The Explorer for lead levels in paint. Mattel to recall more Chinese-made toys 's Quentin Somerville found boxes of toys made for Mattel and its Fisher-Price division and going nowhere. The business was closing for good.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6948274.stm/ ''Brand China' at risk after toy recall'' – Quentin Somerville, BBC News. 15 August 2007].Accessed: 2007-09-05. On 4 September, Mattel recalled a further 530,000 affected toys in the US – and 318,000 outside the US – after its testing found that the Chinese-made products contained levels of lead that are dangerous. This third recall in a month included accessories for ''Barbie'' dolls and Fisher-Price toys.[http://www.shareholder.com/mattel/news/20070904-262639.cfm/ Mattel corporate website. 4 September 2007].Accessed: 2007-09-05. PRODUCTS Toys
Games
Video game consoles
MATTEL IN POPULAR CULTURE
REFERENCES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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