American Greetings sells Care Bears and Shortcake

CLEVELAND American Greetings has agreed to sell its Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake properties to Cookie Jar Entertainment in a $195 million deal that will also include AG’s Sushi Pack property. As part of the deal, American Greetings is receiving a 10-year, inbound licensing agreement on social expression products for all three properties.

“Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears have been synonymous with American Greetings for more than 25 years,” said Josef Mandelbaum, chief executive officer of American Greetings’ Intellectual Property Group. “We are confident that Cookie Jar will be able to take these two properties to new heights.”

Since being re-introduced in 2002, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears have generated more than $5 billion in retail sales of licensed merchandise. They’ll be added to Cookie Jar’s stable of children’s properties that include Caillou and The Doodlebops.