Toy startup MGA Entertainment Inc., best known for its Bratz line of dolls, continues its efforts to challenge toy giant Mattel Inc. for the hearts and minds of children. MGA, whose Bratz have made strong in-roads against Mattel's venerable Barbie, has agreed to buy the preschool toy business Little Tikes Co. from Atlanta-based consumer products giant Newell Rubbermaid Inc. Neither privately-held MGA nor Newell disclosed the price, but Little Tikes has annual revenue of $250 million, according to a Newell press release. Newell acquired the division when it purchased Rubbermaid in 1999. Little Tikes is a competitor for Mattel's Fisher-Price line of pre-school toys. Although Little Tikes as a brand may not be as familiar to most as the Fisher-Price label, some of its products would be widely recognized not only by children, but adults who grew up in the 1970s and later playing with the company's ubiquitous red and yellow Cozy Coupe car (pictured above). As a result of Newell's divestiture of its toy business, its childcare product line Graco, which it also inherited from Rubbermaid, could hit the auction block too. —Matthew Wurtzel
See story from the Atlanta Business Chronicle
See story from the Associate Press via MSN Money
See press release from Newell Rubbermaid
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