Strawberry Shortcake goes north
So even Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears have their price.
Toronto-based Cookie Jar Entertainment said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to buy the popular pastel characters for $195 million from American Greetings Corp.
The sale ends a sticky lawsuit that the Cleveland-based greeting card company filed last month to block Cookie Jar’s acquisition of DIC Entertainment Holdings Inc., which held the licensing rights to the characters.
American Greetings had contended that a 2001 contract with DIC prevented the transfer of the rights to the characters without its consent.
“We weren’t looking to sell -- that wasn’t the intent when we started,” said Josef Mandelbaum, chief executive of American Greetings’ intellectual property group. “They made us an offer that was too good to pass up.”
As part of the settlement, American Greetings will retain rights for 10 years to use the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears characters in cards, calendars, balloons and gift wrap.
It also sold the more edgy Sushi Pack characters to Cookie Jar, a privately held company that produces children’s entertainment, including “The Doodlebops” and “Johnny Test,” as well as educational materials.
Cookie Jar also said it had completed its purchase of Burbank-based DIC, which now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary. The Canadian company paid $31.5 million to buy the outstanding DIC equity. It also agreed to assume DIC’s $42 million in debt and pay $14 million in transaction fees.
Longtime rivals DIC and Cookie Jar believe that by combining they can better combat the companies that dominate the children’s television business -- Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and Time Warner Inc.
“To compete we needed to consolidate our industry,” said Toper Taylor, president of Cookie Jar. “We have done well in entertainment but we struggled with consumer products, and DIC, over the last five years, has struggled with entertainment but excelled in consumer products. There is more power with one company that has a vast library of shows and strong marketing and retail partnerships.”
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