History
As Those Characters from Cleveland (1980s)
Holly Hobbie premiered in 1967 as a line of greeting cards by American Greetings.[1] Knickerbocker Toy Co. manufactured stuffed Holly Hobbie dolls from 1968 to 1983.[2] The character's public appeal led to the formation of Those Characters From Cleveland, Inc. In 1972, the company introduced Ziggy, created by Tom Wilson, which soon had a newspaper cartoon strip generating significant additional income. Universal Press later purchased the creative rights. By 1977, Holly Hobbie became one of the top female licensed characters in the world.[3]
Those Characters From Cleveland was started up by Tom Wilson on behalf of American Greetings[4] in 1981 to handle its licensing business.[5] The first property out of Those Characters was Strawberry Shortcake, which generated in 1981 $500 million in retail sales, followed by the Care Bears with $2 billion in sales over its first two years.[3] The Care Bears were announced in 1982 with M.A.D., Marketing and Design Service of the toy group of General Mills, and launched in Spring 1983 with toys with a syndicated TV special.[6]
Ralph Shaffer, senior vice-president and creative head at From Cleveland, oversaw the creation of Madballs, foam balls with disfigured faces. AmToy, another American Greetings subsidiary, released them as toys in 1986 and reached the #4 on the toy best-seller list by September of that year.[7]
With Mattel, Those Characters From Cleveland had launched the Popples in 1986. in 1986. In 1987, Those Characters came out with four plush variants that do more than just be huggable but playable to be introduced in 1988 through three toy companies.[8]
As AG Properties (2000s-2015)
AG Properties in 2001 named DIC Entertainment as the licensing agent for Strawberry Shortcake.
With DIC merging with Cookie Jar thus transfers the rights, the company sued. In the settlement, AG agreed to sell Shortcake, the Care Bears and the Sushi Pack crime-fighting characters to Cookie Jar for $195 million with payment due September 30, 2008. Cookie Jar could not come up with the financing, but continued to claim to have Shortcake licensing rights. AG found a new buyer of Shortcake and the Bears in MoonScoop, while settling with Cookie Jar with AG to buy out its rights to Shortcake. MoonScoop was to pay part of the purchases price to allow AG to pay Cookie Jar for its rights. Missing that deadline, AG back out of the deal as MoonScoop attempt to complete the deal by the full payment deadline of June 7, 2009. MoonScoop sued with American Greetings winning the case in November 2012.[9]
AG Properties by September 19, 2012, became global licensing agent for Pūkeko Pictures’ The WotWots as they sublicensed the property to EXIM Licensing Group in the Latin America region, Segal Licensing in Canada, Stella Projects in the Australian and New Zealand region.[10]
Sean Gorman was promoted to president of AG Properties in June 2013 with the mandate to add boy franchises. Gorman was hired in 2007 as vice president, entertainment production and development.[11]
Packages from Planet X was produced for Disney XD by DHX Media in Vancouver and Disney and premiered on July 13, 2013.[12] In January 2012, American Greetings Properties and Exim Licensing Group international licensing agent signed a Holly Hobbie publishing deal with V & R Editoras for most of Latin America and the Caribbean.[1]
AG Properties had licensed Lion Forge Comics the Care Bears, Madball and Packages from Planet X for titles under their Roar Comics all-ages imprint for release in late 2014.[13]
On February 3, 2015, Iconix Brand Group signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Strawberry Shortcake brand and related intangible assets from AG Properties for US$105 million.[14][15] DHX Media (now WildBrain) would eventually acquire the franchise in 2017 as part of their buyout of Iconix's entertainment assets, which also included an 80% majority stake in Peanuts owner Peanuts Worldwide.[16]
As American Greetings Entertainment (2015-18)
On October 6, 2015, American Greetings changed the unit's name to American Greetings Entertainment as an indication of a shift in focus to the Care Bears property, alongside additional multi-character and entertainment properties.[17] On October 11, the newly-renamed company announced Buddy Thunderstruck, a stop-motion animated series co-produced with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios that would premiere on Netflix in 2017.[18]
In May 2016, irish production company Sixteen South named American Greetings Entertainment the worldwide distributor of Claude, an animated TV Adaptation of Alex T. Smith's bestselling picture book series.[19] On October 17, 2016, the company announced a partnership with Gaumont Animation to relaunch Herself the Elf with a new television series that the two companies would co-develop, co-produce and co-distribute.[20]
On October 13, 2017, UK pre-school broadcaster CBeebies greenlit a Tinpo television series, which would be co-produced by Dentsu, OLM Digital and Sprite Animation Studios, for a late 2018 release on the network.[21]
In April 2018, Hulu commissioned a Holly Hobbie live action TV series by Aircraft Pictures. It ran for 5 seasons (50 episodes). [22] In May 2018, an advert showcased at the Licensing Expo showcased new redesigns of the Care Bears for a new television series that would premiere in Late-2018.[23]
As Cloudco Entertainment (2018-2023)
On April 6, 2018, the Weiss family announced it was to sell the majority shareholding in American Greetings to US investment company, Clayton Dubilier & Rice.[24] The ownership of American Greetings Entertainment was fully retained by the Weiss family, and so on August 28, 2018, the company was spun off from American Greetings as Cloudco Entertainment, becoming a stand-alone company. The previous management was retained, including president Sean Gorman.[25]
On September 6, the planned new Care Bears animated series previously previewed at the licensing expo would be called Care Bears: Unlock the Magic and would premiere on the Boomerang SVOD service in January 2019.[26][27] On September 20, 2018, Cloudco announced they had opened up an UK office.[28]
Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese the animated series was co-commissioned by CBBC and Gulli in October 2018, which is co-produced with Watch Next Media in France and Kavaleer Productions in Ireland, and premiered on October 31, 2019.[29]
On June 24, 2019, Warner Music Group's Arts Music division launched the licensed Cloudco Entertainment label with the release of the current Holly Hobbie TV show theme song as a part of a multi-season deal.[30]
In January 2021, Cloudco announced they would team up with Topps to create a new toy range that crosses over Cloudco's Madballs and Topps' Garbage Pail Kids franchises.[31] On March 16, 2021, Cloudco and Marblemedia announced they would team-up to co-produce a new live-action comedy series called Overlord and the Underwoods. On the same day, it was confirmed that the show had been picked up by Nickelodeon internationally, ITV in the United Kingdom, CBC in Canada and BYUtv in the United States.[32]
In October 2022, it was announced that a live-action television adaption of Pretty Freekin Scary was commissioned for Disney Channel as a co-production with CakeStart Entertainment, a joint venture between Cake Entertainment and JumpStart Entertainment, as part of the latter's first-look deal with Disney.[33]
Purchase by IVEST Consumer Partners (2023-present)
On August 24, 2023, it was announced that Canadian-based private equity firm IVEST Consumer Partners had purchased Cloudco Entertainment for $100 Million.[34] IVEST's intentions with Cloudco is to put a major focus on the Care Bears franchise and turn it into a major household name.[35] Other plans include utilizing existing Cloudco properties for developing new content, producing new IP, as well as Cloudco being used to acquire and license other properties that IVEST could pick up.[36]
