Cloudco Entertainment is the new name of the former American Greetings Entertainment as it is spun off from its parent company with a sharpened focus on content and licensing of its Care Bears, Madballs and other properties, President Sean Gorman tells us.

The new company, which has 24 employees in offices in Sherman Oaks, CA (operations including licensing) and Cleveland, OH (creative and production), is owned by the Weiss family, which also controls 40% of American Greetings International after selling a 60% stake to the equity investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice earlier this year. American Greetings International will become a Cloudco licensee for greeting cards, wrapping paper and other products.

As part of the spinoff, Cloudco gets control of the American Greetings IP including Care Bears, Madballs, Twisted Whiskers, Buddy Thunderstruck, Holly Hobbie, Tinpo and others. Also included is content developed in the 1980s by Those Characters from Cleveland — the predecessor to American Greetings Properties — which in turn was renamed American Greetings Entertainment in 2015. Cloudco is profitable, due partly due to the sale of the Strawberry Shortcake brand to Iconix in 2015, says Gorman.

“We were viewed as a greeting card company instead focusing on our own brands and people would ask us, ‘Can you get us a card deal?’” says Gorman.  “It’s a different customer, business model and focus and we (the cards and content businesses) are very different and in many ways it had to happen.”

The new company’s licensing efforts will be headed by former Hasbro and Saban executive Robert Prinzo, who joined Cloudco two weeks ago in a role vacant since the departure of Janice Ross earlier this year. Nora Wong remains VP of U.S. licensing, while Roubina Minassian handles international.

The changes come as Cloudco readies a new Care Bears TV series with a new broadcast partner starting late this year with a “teaser” in December and regular programming in March, says Gorman. A new licensing program will accompany the new series (48, 11-minute episodes, two, 22-minute specials and 20, 20-second shorts). Cloudco also is in the early stages of developing a Care Bears film with a major studio. There are about 260 Care Bears licensees globally.

The focus of the core Care Bears content has changed slightly to 5-7-year-old girls from 6-11-year-old boys and girls. Cloudco also has developed and signed apparel and plush licensing agreements for a new Care Bears Baby brand with the first products expected to reach the market by year-end.

Cloudco has signed NECA’s Kidrobot as the master toy licensee for Madballs, consolidating the license under a single company. Kidrobot previously had a license for specialty retailers while Just Play had it for the mass channel. A Madballs backpack from licensee Concept One also has launched at Target. Madballs has 26 licensees.

A Holly Hobbie licensing program is being developed around a new live-action series (10, 30-minute episodes) that’s slated for Hulu in November.

In the case of Twisted Whiskers, licensee Aurora World has launched an exclusive plush line at Dollar General. A “Tiny Heads” series also is in development featuring the three main Twisted Whiskers characters.

Cloudco also is seeking a second season for its “Buddy Thunderstruck,” which debuted on Netflix in March 2017 and has a licensing deal for plush with Funko.

Contact:

Cloudco, Sean Gorman, Pres., sgorman@ag.com