American Greetings

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Greetings Corporation

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1906
Seat Cleveland , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management
  • Zev Weiss ( CEO and Director)
Number of employees 17,250
sales 1.89 billion US dollars
Branch greeting cards
Website www.americangreetings.com
As of February 29, 2016

American Greetings ( English for "American Greetings") is the world's largest publisher of greeting cards. The company is based in Cleveland in the US state of Ohio and sells greeting cards, party products, such as wrapping paper and decorations, and electronic services, such as ring tones and images for mobile phones. In addition to the American Greetings brand, the company also owns the greeting card brands Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts and Gibson.

American Greetings is also known for its toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland . The best known copyright owners of this division are Strawberry Shortcake , The Care Bears , The Get Along Gang and Holly Hobbie . American Greetings also owns rights to Nickelodeon characters.

history

Founded in 1906 by a Polish immigrant named Jacob Sapirstein (1885–1987) who sold tickets from a horse-drawn carriage, American Greetings has been family-run from the start. Irving I. Stone (Sapirstein's eldest son, who changed his last name to Stone) filled envelopes when he was five, ran the business when his father was sick at nine, and worked full-time in the business by the end of high school . From 1958 the company was listed on the stock exchange. In 1987, Irving Stone's son-in-law Morry Weiss followed as CEO and in 1992 as Chairman, whereupon Stone assumed the title of Founder-Chairman (in German "Founder Chairman"), which his father previously held. Stone died in 2000. In 2001, American Greetings purchased the Blue Mountain Arts greeting card company from Excite @ Home for $ 35 million . In 2003, Morry Weiss' sons, Zev and Jeffrey, became CEO and President, respectively. Morry Weiss remained chairman. At the beginning of 2007, American Greetings replaced Kellogg’s as the main sponsor of Dragon Tales . In 2013 the company was taken off the stock exchange.

Licenses

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual Report 2015/16 ( Form 10-K )
  2. ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/news/american-greetings-buys-blue-mountain-arts/118206
  3. ↑ 18 shares American Greetings' Weiss family aims to take the company private again, via an $ 878 million offer for outstanding shares , at www.cleveland.com , accessed December 19, 2017