4Kids Entertainment Weighs Alternatives
The global children’s entertainment company saw shares plummet last fall and is yet to recover.
August 7, 2009
4Kids Entertainment has retained Montgomery & Co. to help it weigh strategic alternatives as the company faces share prices that fell almost 80 percent a year ago and have yet to post a substantial recovery.
Shares fell another three percent in trading late Friday, to $1.87; the company’s market capitalization is slightly less than $25 million.
The recession has hit entertainment portfolios hard, putting struggling entities in a position of selling rights at a time when online presentation can fully exploit content.
Even entertainment titans have been impacted; MGM Studios hired Houlihan Lokey to help it weigh alternatives ahead of a budget meeting with lenders.
Recently, KKR and Bertlesmann launched a music rights joint venture
Earlier this year, 4Kids Entertainment was threatened by the NYSE with deregulation after it was determined stockholders’ equity was not sufficient. Alfred R. Kahn, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said the decision was based on “recent developments in our business and in the current macroeconomic environment” in a statement.
It was previously reported that up to 15 percent of 4Kids Entertainment’s staff was laid off. The company has been behind decades of children’s entertainment hits, including the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Japanese anime franchises, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cabbage Patch Kids.
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