4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation; stylized as 4K!DS ENTERTAINMENT) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English-dubbed Japanese anime through its subsidiary 4Kids Productions between 1992 and 2012; it specialized in the acquisition, production and licensing of children's entertainment around the United States. The first anime that 4Kids Productions dubbed was the first eight seasons of Pokémon that originally began airing in first run syndication, and then it later moved to exclusively air on Kids' WB! in the United States. The company is most well-known for its range of television licenses, which has included the multibillion-dollar Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! Japanese anime franchises. They also ran two program blocks: Toonzai (originally The CW4Kids) on The CW, and 4Kids TV (originally FoxBox) on Fox, both aimed at children. The 4KidsTV block ended on December 27, 2008, while its Toonzai block ended on August 18, 2012, which was replaced by Saban's Vortexx, which in itself was succeeded by the One Magnificent Morning block by Litton Entertainment (now known as Hearst Media Production Group) in 2014.
4Licensing Corporation had its world headquarters on Third Avenue in New York City, its former subsidiary, 4Kids Productions, had its headquarters in a separate building in Manhattan. The New York Stock Exchange delisted 4Kids (NYSE: KDE) on June 1, 2010. On April 6, 2011, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a lawsuit concerning the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. On December 13, 2012, the company announced that it had emerged from bankruptcy. On September 21, 2016, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection once again and shut down operations one year later. 4Kids' former CEO, Alfred R. Kahn, founded a successor company called Kidtagious Entertainment in 2019.
History Company origins Leisure Concepts was co-founded on April 28, 1970, by Mike Germakian (later who would be known as one of the creators of ThunderCats) and Stan Weston (the creator of G.I. Joe and Captain Action), as an independent licensing agency in New York City. Mike Germakian was the secretary of LCI, while Stan Weston was initially the President and later the Chairman of Leisure Concepts. Weston was also the Treasurer of the company.
1970–87: Early beginnings
In the beginning, the company pitched toy and cartoon ideas to various companies, as well as formed partnerships with companies such as Rankin/Bass, among others.
LCI began making news in the 1980s through licensing actual people, a variety of products, and even concepts. The company also had a growing number of deals with television producers and toy manufacturers. Among the company's licenses at the time were Farrah Fawcett of Charlie's Angels fame, Charlie Chan, James Bond 007, a wide array of Nintendo characters and products, the Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV Series and many others.
LCI is credited in its assistance in the initial development of the "ThunderCats" concept and acted on behalf of Lorimar-Telepictures Corp as an exclusive worldwide licensing agent for products based on "Thundercats", an agreement that was signed between the two parties on June 15, 1984.
During the mid-1980s, Ted Wolf came up with the idea of a race of catlike humanoid superheroes. He shared his vision with his friend Stan Weston, who in turn, through LCI, pitched it to Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment. Both Arthur Rankin Jr and Jules Bass were impressed with the idea and the potential that it had of becoming an instant success. They approved of it and ThunderCats went into production.
During the early development stage, Mike Germakian designed much of the ThunderCats characters, vehicles and locations. He was also responsible for creating the now iconic ThunderCats logo, featuring a stylized black panther head on a red circle. Germakian's designs were then sent to Pacific Animation Corporation in Japan to be adapted into cartoon format. After completing work on ThunderCats, Germakian went on to design characters for SilverHawks and The Comic Strip, both Rankin/Bass shows.
In July 1987, Alfred Kahn, former Executive Vice President of Marketing at Coleco, who was credited for bringing the Cabbage Patch Kids to the Mainstream, joined the company as vice chairman and a member of the board of directors.
On December 17, 1987, LCI signed a licensing deal with Nintendo of America, Inc. to market the software products that went along with its increasingly popular gaming systems. Nintendo had already introduced The Legend of Zelda for its Nintendo Entertainment System, a software product that went on to sell more than one million copies during the year. Some time in 1986, the company also signed a licensing deal to market Star Wars.
1987–95: Expansion
In 1987, Bobby Kotick (former President and CEO of Activision Blizzard) tried to acquire Commodore International. When Kotick was unsuccessful, he instead purchased a controlling stake in LCI, thus also becoming LCI's CEO and chairman in June 1990. Kotick later traded out of his stake in LCI and bought a 25% stake in Activision in December 1990. In March 1991, Kotick became CEO at Activision.
The company did $6 million in sales in 1989 and employed 14 people by 1990.
On March 12, 1991, LCI appointed Alfred Kahn as its chairman and CEO.
In 1992, two subsidiaries were established by the company: The Summit Media Group, Inc. and 4Kids Productions. Summit was LCI's media buying and planning services division which would also handle Broadcast syndication for television shows. 4Kids Productions was the media division of the company which would produce and acquire television shows. This would include English-dubbing Japanese anime, which the company would be mostly known for.
In June 1993, LCI opened up an overseas office based in the United Kingdom.
In September 1995, 4Kids Productions' very first television series, WMAC Masters, premiered on syndicated television stations across the United States.
1995–2000: 4Kids Entertainment
On November 16, 1995, Leisure Concepts Inc. changed its name to 4Kids Entertainment Inc. This allowed the company to expand on the licensing of children's properties. Leisure Concepts remained as a separate subsidiary of the company, as did The Summit Media Group and 4Kids Productions.
In January 1998, 4Kids Entertainment announced that it had acquired the rights to the Pokémon animated series outside of Asia. This news followed a major incident where an episode's special effects led to almost 700 people in Japan being taken to the hospital. When noted on the incident when 4Kids attended NATPE 1998 to pre-sell the series, Summit's Chief Executive Officer, Shelly Hirsch, confirmed that the flashing lights in episodes would be toned down. Pokémon debuted in the United States in September with fifty-two half-hour episodes, becoming the highest-rated syndicated children's program and beating other programmes like Today in its timeslot. By October, 4Kids and Lacey Entertainment had pre-sold the series in countries such as Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada, and Brazil while Leisure Concepts signed merchandising deals with companies such as Tiger Electronics and American Greetings.
The popularity of Pokémon on syndication led to Kids' WB picking up the US broadcast rights to the series in January 1999. Alongside this, the show continued to be sold internationally. By October, 4Kids Entertainment employed 50 people.
2000–05: The new millennium With the continued success of Pokémon, the new century found 4Kids Entertainment the opportunity to produce and/or license more content, hoping to achieve similar successes. In February, the company announced the production of two original properties, entitled The Adventures of Flamehead (which would never come into fruition) and Cubix. They also secured the licensing rights outside Japan to Sony Creative Products' Tama & Friends, its second anime property. On April 5, 4Kids and Mattel signed a licensing agreement to create Hot Wheels die-cast cars and racing sets featuring the PACE Motor Sports line of monster trucks. The license included rights to the monster truck Grave Digger, and a new line of World Championship Wrestling vehicles designed after their star wrestlers such as Goldberg, Sting and Bret Hart. The PACE Motor Sports and World Championship Wrestling line of Hot Wheels vehicles have been available nationally at mass-market retailers beginning in the summer of that year. On September 20, 4Kids switched from the NASDAQ market and joined the New York Stock Exchange. The firm's new ticker symbol was KDE, and the company was riding high during the continuing success of Pokémon when it earned Fortune's top slot on its 100 Fastest Growing Companies for 2000. The company was also listed on the Frankfurt Exchange earlier in the year. 2000 also saw 4Kids launch two new divisions – Technology 4Kids, which would develop toys and new hi-tech experiences, and Websites 4Kids, which would produce online portals to shows produced and/or licensed by the company.
In January 2001, 4Kids acquired the rights to two additional shows – Ultraman Tiga and Kinnikuman. On April 19, 4Kids Entertainment announced it had acquired the merchandising and television rights to the series Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters outside of Asia from Nihon Ad Systems. After pre-selling US broadcast rights to Kids' WB, the series premiered in September 2001 to equal success on par with Pokémon. On October 10, 4Kids announced a new five-year agreement with their long-term partner Nintendo of America, where they would secure exclusive merchandising rights to Nintendo properties outside Japan as well as right of first refusal media rights to any Nintendo property. This deal replaced their previous long-term deal dating back to the 1980s. It would be separate from its existing Pokémon agreement through Pokémon USA, Inc., itself being renewed by 4Kids for the same period, of which they acquired a 3% stake in its parent The Pokémon Company in a move to benefit indirectly from Pokémon's success in Asia, and from worldwide sales of Pokémon electronic cards and video games. At the end of the year, 4Kids' international division, LCI UK, was renamed 4Kids Entertainment International. while Leisure Concepts, Inc. became 4Kids Entertainment Licensing, Inc.
In late January 2002, after engaging in a bidding war with DIC Entertainment, 4Kids Entertainment signed a four-year, US$100 million deal with the Fox Broadcasting Company to program its Saturday morning lineup. In May, 4Kids announced they had entered into a deal with Mirage Studios to produce a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series to air on the new strand in the first quarter of 2003, as well as securing worldwide merchandising rights to the property. Later on in the month, 4Kids announced that its new Fox strand would be named the FoxBox and would premiere in September. Alongside this news, 4Kids announced they had secured the air rights to the Kirby anime series under their deal with Nintendo, as well as Food Feud (renamed Fighting Foodons upon premiere), both of which would air on the block. With 4Kids wholly responsible for the content on the FoxBox, they formed a new division – 4Kids Ad Sales, to hold all advertising revenues coming from it. In the same month, 4Kids Entertainment announced the formation of 4Kids Entertainment Home Video, Inc., and signed a North American distribution deal with FUNimation Productions. Releases under 4Kids Entertainment Home Video would include releases of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cubix, Cabbage Patch Kids and Tama and Friends. The FoxBox strand officially premiered on Fox on September 14, 2002. By the end of the year, 4Kids got $140 million in Pokémon revenue.