LeapFrog has announced its fourth quarter financial results. Net sales for the quarter were $188.6 million, a 36.9 percent increased compared to $137.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. The company attributes the increase in net sales to higher sales of interactive reading systems, software-based book and game content, and learning toy products.
Gross profit for the quarter was $83.4 million, up 73.2 percent compared to $48.1 million in 2008.
Effective March 1, Jeffrey Katz, current LeapFrog chairman and CEO, will leave his position as CEO and return to the LeapFrog Board of Directors as executive chairman. Bill Chiasson, current CFO, will become CEO.
Spielwarenmesse International Toy Fair Nuremberg 2010 closed its doors on Tuesday with a grand total of 76,600 visitors during the six-day event, a 2-percent increase compared to 2009. The visitors traveled from 104 countries, and exhibitors totaled 2,625.
According to the Toy Fair Nuremberg, 23.2 percent of the exhibitors said their customers were more interested in purchasing and ordering than the year before (in 2009 the number was 9.4 percent). The fair also reported that 86.2 percent of visitors were decision-makers (2009: 84.8 percent), and 52 percent of all buyers and traders came from abroad (2009: 51 percent). German visitors to the fair dropped slightly, but the number was offset by an increase of visitors from France, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, and the U.S.
Allied Products Company has been picked to develop and market a line of wooden and cardboard puzzles under the Encyclopaedia Britannica brand. Allied will produce the line of branded puzzles under both its Springbok and Majestic puzzle lines.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica Springbok puzzles will be sold at a wide selection of gift and specialty stores such as Hallmark, while the Encyclopaedia Britannica Majestic puzzles will be at retail stores. The first Britannica puzzle, America the Beautiful, will be on store shelves early this year.
A new eco-friendly toy company, Planet Fred, will be debuting its line of soft and colorful plush called BamBoo Bears at Toy Fair New York. BamBoo Bears are made from natural bamboo and organic cotton fleece, decorated in vibrant shades of pink and blue. Through a program with the National Arbor Day Foundation, Planet Fred will plant one tree in U.S. forests for every six BamBoo Bears that are sold.
A Squared (A2) Entertainment and Archie Comics have teamed up with Stan Lee—the co-creator of comics such as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, and Iron Man, and founder and chief creative officer of POW! Entertainment—to create a new print and digital comic book line. Scheduled first for release is an original multimedia series called Super Seven. The series follows seven aliens who are stranded on planet Earth after their spaceship crashes, and then befriended by none other than Lee himself. Lee becomes their leader and enables the seven to live as superheroes on Earth.
Super Seven is slated to debut in fall 2010 in digital, print, and broadcast.
The Joester Loria Group, the exclusive licensing agency for the Pinkalicious picture book series, is expanding the brand with a new consumer products program and a new collection of Pinkalicious merchandise. The book series includes the original book title Pinkalicious and two sequels, Purplicious and Goldilicious.
JAKKS Pacific will debut a line of “pinktastic” dolls, toys, and activity items inspired by the series. The line––available at Wal-Mart stores in the fall––will include a small doll assortment of three, a large Pinkalicious doll outfitted in fairy princess wings and a crown, a plush doll of Pinkalicious’s friend Goldie, and the Pinkalicious Activity Easel that includes pink paper, markers, glitter, and stickers.
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Wild Planet will release its first line of Crayola-licensed games this fall. The new games are an extension of the partnership between the two companies; in 2009 Crayola and Wild Planet launched Crayon Town activity sets.
Guess My Picture is a game of creating and identifying pictures made from different shapes. The game, for kids ages four and older, is part puzzle, part art project, and part guessing game, promoting spatial thinking and fine motor skills.
HIT Entertainment has expanded its Global Development Team by naming four experts to the newly created Global Advisory Committee. The members of the committee include Dr. David Buckingham from The Institute of Education in London, and head of the Centre of Study of Children, Youth and Media in the UK; Dr. Sandra Calvert, professor in the department of psychology at Georgetown University, and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center; Dr. Renee Cherow-O’Leary, president of education for the 21st Century, a research and consulting firm in New York City; and Dr. Wendy Sims, associate chair of the department of learning, teaching, & curriculum at University of Missouri-Columbia and director of music education at the university’s School of Music.