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Mattel's latest play to counter slowing Barbie sales: Water parks
With Barbie sales slipping, Mattel is looking to its characters and games to build a new revenue stream: water parks. The El Segundo, California, company has been trying to find
Mattel to Acquire Full Ownership of Mattel163 Mobile Games Studio, Strengthening its Digital Games Business
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., February 10, 2026--Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT), a leading global play and family entertainment company and owner of one of the most iconic brand portfolios in the world, today announced an agreement with its joint venture partner, NetEase, a leading internet and game services provider, to acquire full ownership of the Mattel163 mobile games studio. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of Q1, subject to customary closing conditions.
How Barbie became a $1 billion-a-year brand
Barbie became a $1 billion-a-year brand and one of the most iconic toys in history. Now Mattel's crown jewel is facing challenges.
The original Xbox is getting a gorgeous building block set for its 25th anniversary
To celebrate the console's 25th Anniversary, the original Xbox is getting a building block set from Mattel that's set to launch in October.
Carida Capital Group announces Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterpark coming to North Carolina as part of new entertainment district
ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. — Carida Capital Group announced today that Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina will be home to one of the first Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterparks, becoming a key attraction within th…
Mattel Recasts Growth With Mobile Games Brick Shop And Entertainment Push
Mattel has completed the acquisition of mobile game studio Mattel163, taking full control of its digital gaming business. The company is rolling out the new Mattel Brick Shop, a construction toy concept positioned to compete more directly with LEGO. Mattel is also deepening its entertainment efforts, tying its brands more closely to film and content projects. NasdaqGS:MAT is trading at $14.72, with the stock down 26.5% year to date and 30.3% over five years. In this context, the decision to...
MATTEL AND LUCHA LIBRE AAA® ANNOUNCE WORLDWIDE LICENSING PARTNERSHIP
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., July 23, 2026 — Mattel, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAT), a leading global play and family entertainment company, and WWE, the global leader in sports entertainment, today announced a new multi-year global licensing agreement at their joint San Diego Comic-Con panel that expands Mattel's WWE portfolio to include Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), one of Mexico's most iconic and influential lucha libre promotions.
Xbox expands leadership team with major hires
Xbox has added two big names to its leadership team: Matthew Ball and Scott Van Vliet. The new recruits are part of an on-going drive from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to move faster, build better products, and make more focused business decisions. The Game Business can reveal that Ball is joining as Chief Strategy Officer. He is a popular industry analyst who is responsible for the annual The State of Video Gaming report, which is widely read across the business. His first job will be to strengthen the console side of Xbox, which is facing significant pressures, not least from the rising costs of memory and storage. In an interview with The Game Business earlier in the year, he admitted he was “pretty frightened” by the situation for the console sector. Ball had previously worked as head of strategy and planning for Amazon Studios, and wrote the 2022 international best-seller The Metaverse. He is currently CEO of Epyllion, a venture partner at investment group Makers Fund and senior advisor at KKR & Co. Meanwhile, Scott Van Vliet joins as Chief Technology Officer. He was previously in charge of Azure OpenAI and AI Core infrastructure at Microsoft, and he also led engineering for Microsoft Teams during the COVID 19 pandemic. But he has a games background. He previously worked across games for Amazon, including Alexa, Amazon Game Studios and the Amazon App Store. He directly worked on the Minecraft: Fire TV Edition. Prior to that, he was VP of Digital Play at Mattel, and worked across brands such as Batman, Barbie, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Cut The Rope. His job will be to improve how Xbox builds products so teams can move faster and deliver stronger results. For more breaking stories, sign-up to The Game Business today Subscribe In addition to these new hires, Xbox has promoted Chris Schnakenberg to Corporate Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development. He was previously VP of partnerships and business development, and joined from Activision Blizzard, where he spent 12 years in various strategy, business development and partner relations role. His focus is on third-party games, publishers and developers working with Xbox. The news follows a number of new hires and promotions earlier in the month, including Jason Ronald taking leadership over Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix console. “These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,” Sharma said in an email to staff. “As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we’ll continue making the changes needed to position XBOX for the future.” Matthew Ball is speaking with Christopher Dring at The Game Business Live on Monday, June 8. More details on the event can be found here.
American Girl’s ‘modern era’ makeover of beloved dolls draws swift backlash from loyal fans
American Girl's redesigned historical dolls spark fierce backlash from longtime fans who say the modern makeover "ruins the whole point" of the beloved toys.
Relive the Original Xbox By Building Your Own 1:1 Scale 3,509-Piece Mattel Brick Shop Version
In celebration of the Xbox's 25th anniversary, Mattel has announced a 3,509-piece, 1:1-scale buildable original Xbox through its premium Mattel Brick Shop brand. And yes, it also includes a buildable 1:1-scale Duke controller and features lights, sounds, and scenes from three different classic Xbox games. It's available for preorder at a couple of different retailers for $329.99.
Mattel Wants To Succeed In Games Where Hasbro Is Failing
Mattel is looking to succeed where Hasbro failed
Ted Wu’s Eye for Design and Business Acumen Have Found a Home at Mattel
We sat down with Mattel’s Ted Wu, known for his leadership of the Hot Wheels and Matchbox brands, to discuss design, leadership, and inclusivity.
From Masters of the Universe to Monteverdi: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
The cartoon favourite and Mattel toy He-Man battles Skeletor on the big screen, and Garsington continues its run of excellent early operas
When 1 + 1 = 1: The Miserable Math Behind Many Media Mergers
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) The last few issues of this newsletter have circled two topics: September’s streaming viewership and all the Paramount/Skydance/Warner Bros./Discovery merger news. I’m happy to say on the Streaming Ratings Report front, we’ll be all caught up by early next week, then the SRR will come out on a tight weekly schedule. Then, after today, I’ll have slayed my PSWbD dragon. It’s such a big story, it demanded multiple issues. With the announcement of a name (just Skydance) and executive team, though, I think we can almost close the book on this story. In terms of topics, it becomes just another studio to cover. So today, I have one last set of takes on that merger. As I’ve sat with it, reading about who was staying and who was going, a big worry crystallized in my brain, and I gotta get that take out. Plus, I still owe you a host of “ugliness” that didn’t fit in my previous “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” takes. Let’s dive in! Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - As Paramount Shuffles Deck Chairs, Will They Build or Consolidate? On social media—I try to avoid most social media platforms, but sometimes I end up checking in—the best joke I saw about the announcement of the new name of Skydance was from fellow reporter Claire Atkinson who pointed out… Yeah, I laughed out loud at that one. Later, though, I saw another Twitter response (that later got deleted, so I can’t shout the person out) that did give me pause. The person noted that the Titanic film made the better analogy: a super expensive project everyone in the town doubted that went on to conquer the globe. So yeah: on one hand, the image of the Titanic recalls the actual ship and its infamous end, but that clip is from a movie which proved the doubters wrong. So for all the skepticism of the latest massive media merger, one could wonder which way this one goes. Does it crash like the Titanic or rise to glory like Titanic, the movie? Either way, this deal is “Titanic”, looking at the massive debt required to close the deal, which is not going well when it comes to borrowing costs for Paramount… …or borrowing costs for Oracle. But I’ve started to get worried about another outcome: the sum of this merger will be smaller and weaker and less profitable than its former parts. In other words, one plus one won’t equal three or two, but an even smaller number. Skydance paid to take a traditional studio off the board, but they won’t really capture the upside. Let me explain what I mean, but first, let’s look at the series of news that inspired this thought. Skydance Sets Its Leadership Team As soon as the Paramount-Skydance-Warner Bros.-Discovery merger closed, the new leadership team announced a new name—Skydance, which I’ll use going forward—and a new executive leadership team. You’ve probably read through all the executive shuffling, but if you haven’t, here’s a quick, incomplete summary, in rough order of importance: Mattel’s CEO Ynon Kreiz—who previously ran Maker Studios—joined as co-CEO with David Ellison. HBO/HBO Max’s Casey Bloys will stay and run streaming. Former head of streaming for Paramount-Skydance Cindy Holland—who was also at Netflix—will depart. The former heads of Warner Bros.—Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca—are out. The film studios will be run by Dana Goldstein and Josh Greenstein. George Cheeks of Paramount will run Skydance TV, controlling all the TV production units. In comic book news, the DC films will still be run by Peter Gunn and Peter Safran. Lastly, the head of CNN, Mark Thompson, will stay in place. Let’s quickly opine on the particulars before diving into the broad ramifications. We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… Who I like and dislike in their next gigs… Why I think this consolidation will likely leave Skydance worse off… The math behind which mergers succeed and which don’t… A lot more ugliness in this merger… And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support.
'RuPaul's Drag Race' star Katya postpones show after medical procedure
"RuPaul's Drag Race" alum Katya Zamolodchikova has postponed her Netflix is a Joke show with Trixie Mattel to focus on "her health and recovery."
In the Protein Era, Even He-Man Is Hawking Supplements
To promote “Masters of the Universe,” Mattel, the toymaker behind the movie, tapped into one of the hottest trends in health and wellness: protein.
Mattel Picks Roger Lynch to Lead Toy Company After Ynon Kreiz Exit
Condé Nast chief Roger Lynch will become chairman of Mattel on Oct. 2 and CEO by Nov. 2, replacing Ynon Kreiz, who is leaving for another…
Xbox expands leadership team with major hires
Xbox has added two big names to its leadership team: Matthew Ball and Scott Van Vliet. The new recruits are part of an on-going drive from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to move faster, build better products, and make more focused business decisions. The Game Business can reveal that Ball is joining as Chief Strategy Officer. He is a popular industry analyst who is responsible for the annual The State of Video Gaming report, which is widely read across the business. His first job will be to strengthen the console side of Xbox, which is facing significant pressures, not least from the rising costs of memory and storage. In an interview with The Game Business earlier in the year, he admitted he was “pretty frightened” by the situation for the console sector. Ball had previously worked as head of strategy and planning for Amazon Studios, and wrote the 2022 international best-seller The Metaverse. He is currently CEO of Epyllion, a venture partner at investment group Makers Fund and senior advisor at KKR & Co. Meanwhile, Scott Van Vliet joins as Chief Technology Officer. He was previously in charge of Azure OpenAI and AI Core infrastructure at Microsoft, and he also led engineering for Microsoft Teams during the COVID 19 pandemic. But he has a games background. He previously worked across games for Amazon, including Alexa, Amazon Game Studios and the Amazon App Store. He directly worked on the Minecraft: Fire TV Edition. Prior to that, he was VP of Digital Play at Mattel, and worked across brands such as Batman, Barbie, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Cut The Rope. His job will be to improve how Xbox builds products so teams can move faster and deliver stronger results. For more breaking stories, sign-up to The Game Business today Subscribe In addition to these new hires, Xbox has promoted Chris Schnakenberg to Corporate Vice President, Partnerships & Business Development. He was previously VP of partnerships and business development, and joined from Activision Blizzard, where he spent 12 years in various strategy, business development and partner relations role. His focus is on third-party games, publishers and developers working with Xbox. The news follows a number of new hires and promotions earlier in the month, including Jason Ronald taking leadership over Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix console. “These changes are about strengthening our foundation by creating more clarity and improving execution,” Sharma said in an email to staff. “As we head toward Showcase and beyond, we’ll continue making the changes needed to position XBOX for the future.” Matthew Ball is speaking with Christopher Dring at The Game Business Live on Monday, June 8. More details on the event can be found here.
Major openings coming in 2026 from Mattel Adventure Park to Buc-ee's
From Mattel Adventure Park and Buc-ee's to a Harkins Theatres 4D experience, here are major entertainment openings coming to metro Phoenix in 2026.
Mattel goes through another round of layoffs
The company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels plans to lay off 65 workers in May, the latest in a series of mass layoffs that have plagued Mattel in the past year.
Kid Captain: Rebecca Recalde
Rebecca Recalde developed severe childhood epilepsy at age 3, experiencing up to 80 seizures per day and undergoing two brain surgeries at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital. Now 15, she relearned basic skills, returned to dance and other hobbies, excelled academically, and advocates for epilepsy awareness as a Kid Captain.
PEOPLE: Jeff Shultz to join Radial Entertainment’s C-suite next year
Also, Kidscreen alum Nelson Huynh will manage content sales in the Americas for Mattel on contract in 2026, and Paramount has added LatAm to franchise director Lee Harris-Gibbs' remit.
'Hacks' star admits she stormed out of Emmys after losing to costar: 'Biggest sore loser'
'Hacks' star Robby Hoffman admitted she stormed out of the Emmys after losing to costar Julianne Nicholson: 'I was the biggest sore loser,' Hoffman told 'Drag Race' icon Trixie Mattel on her podcast.
Corporate America Is No Meritocracy. Just Ask Women
Back in 2008, there were 12 women running Fortune 500 companies. Even though that equaled a measly 2.4%, it was still progress. A decade earlier, that number was 0.4%, or just two women (Jill Barad at Mattel Inc. and Marion Sandler at Golden West Financial Corp.).
Mattel raises annual profit forecast on steady toy demand, entertainment push
Mattel raised its annual profit forecast and beat analysts' estimates for quarterly sales on Wednesday, benefiting from resilient demand for toys and growth in its entertainment business.
Autistic Barbie joins Mattel diversity and inclusion line
New autistic Barbie includes fidget spinner, noise-canceling headphones and articulated joints, and was designed with Autistic Self Advocacy Network input.
Mattel raises annual profit forecast on steady toy demand, entertainment push
Mattel raised its annual profit forecast and beat analysts' estimates for quarterly sales on Wednesday, benefiting from resilient demand for toys and growth in its entertainment business. "We continued to make progress on our strategy to grow our IP-driven play and family entertainment business and are seeing top-line acceleration in the second quarter to date," CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a statement. Mattel's first-quarter net sales of $862.2 million beat analysts' estimates of $804.7 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.