Mattel’s Bad Luck Continues – CEO Resigns Just Before Toy Fair

It’s not easy being Mattel. Last year they got word that they’d be losing all of their Disney’s Frozen and Disney Princess licenses. Then, the holidays dealt them a brutal blow with sales down 59% compared to the year prior. Now, with just a few days before Toy Fair International, their CEO, Bryan Stockton, has just abruptly resigned.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal had to say about it:

Mr. Stockton took the CEO job three years ago and has presided over a long run of weak results. People inside the company and at customers attributed the slide to a growing focus on the numbers and overseas expansion at the expense of the company’s creative side. The company’s executives became entangled in a culture that valued endless meetings and long PowerPoint presentations. Meanwhile, smaller competitors like VTech Holdings Ltd. were taking shelf space and Lego A/S was challenging Mattel’s position as the largest toy company.

Source: WSJ