| Type | Public (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 | US$1.64 Billion (FY 2010)[1] |
| Operating income | US$140 Million (FY 2010)[1] |
| Net income | US$81.6 Million (FY 2010)[1] |
| Total assets | US$1.53 Billion (FY 2010)[2] |
| Total equity | US$636 Million (FY 2010)[2] |
| Employees | 18,000 |
| Website | www.ag.com |
American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly traded greeting card company. It is based in Brooklyn, Ohio[3] 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 cellphones). In addition to the American Greetings brand, the company owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts and Gibson brands of greeting cards.
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.
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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 fulltime upon leaving high school. He was succeeded as CEO by his son-in-law Morry Weiss in 1987, and 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. 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.
In 2010, American Greetings announced that they will be moving their headquarters out of Brooklyn, OH, and relocating to a new facility at Crocker Park within the city of Westlake, Ohio.
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.
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.[4]
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.[5] In August, 2009 MoonScoop filed a lawsuit against American Greetings over the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake deal.[6]
(Note: not all licenses are original creations by American Greetings. Some were licensed from third parties, where indicated)