If the rumor that Mattel has held talks with private-equity firms about a potential sale is true, than I am a little concerned. I don't believe that this could lead to the final deal in the near future, but who knows. Here somehow everything is always behind smoke and mirrors. What would that mean for us? Layoffs?
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Quality discussions aside, Mattel did bequeath F-P with See N Say, and the Disney Infant / Preschool Business. F-P Managed to lose the Disney License, Drive See N Say into oblivion, and Drive away the CTW / Sesame business, with a nice spate of recalls in the baby gear line to round it all off. Plenty of blame to go around for F-P's state of affairs, mostly at the decision-makers level, even with a superior product development team in EA.
If Mattel is bought by a private equity firm it would sell off the brands. It more valuable to sell off Hot Wheels, Barbie, Mega, Fisher Price, and American Girl to other companies then to find a buyer for Mattel as a whole. The name Mattel will probably disappear as the major brand are sold off one by one.
To the person who posted about Fisher-Price being mis-managed when it was 'independent' after the Quaker Oats spin-off, you are completely wrong. It was the best 2 years - profits were at an all time high which is why Mattel bought the company. WHY on earth would they ever buy a company that was losing money? They did NOT SAVE the company from bankruptcy. They bought them because of the value they brought. You are spewing nonsense which is what most people who post here spew. You have no facts, just making stuff up - no different that today's media. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT OR DON'T POST. And for all those unhappy, LEAVE. Unemployment is at an all time low. You have options and yet you all choose to just post about your miserable lives while you are cashing your big paychecks. You're all a bunch of whiners.
Mattel is not bad for FP.
It’s the margin requirements and large minimum order quantities that Mattel requires that hurt the most. It’s hard to make a great affordable toy with a 60 or more percent margin. And forget about selling to anyone but the majors with high minimum order quantities.
It’s not fun to work on something for months and then find out that one of the majors don’t want it. Or want it for less $.
Sure just cost the feature out and hope it sells.
Quaker Oats ran Fisher Price for more than 20 years. During that time, I'm sure everyone griped that "it was better before the cereal guys ruined us." They became independent in the early 90s, were terribly mismanaged, and were bought by Mattel after only 2 years. They basically saved the company from bankruptcy.
In more than 50 years of history FP has been on their own for ALMOST 24 months. But apparently those 2 years were so glorious that everyone in East Aurora can't stop talking about them.
Fisher Price was independent ( not owned by Quaker Oats) before mattel unfortunately bought them. mattel has not been good for FP. mattel exceeds at making low quality, cheap “toys”.
Fisher Price has been a part of Mattel since 1993, and yet you old timers still keep griping about the "good old days" before Mattel acquired it and "ruined" everything. You're right - let's just give it back to the previous owner, Quaker Oats - truly pioneers in the toy industry.
The best thing for FP would be to be sold and cut free from the cheap/lousy quality Mattel Organization