Kartoon Studios, Inc., formerly known as Genius Brands International (GBI), is an entertainment company headed by

Andy Heyward Andrew B. Heyward (born February 19, 1949) is an American media executive and animator who is currently CEO of Kartoon Studios, formerly known as Genius Brands International. He previously worked at defunct animation studio and production com ...

. The company was formed from the merger of Genius Brands International and A Squared Entertainment.

History

Background

A Squared Entertainment

's previous company,

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions, sometimes stylized as DİC) was a French American film and television production company that ...

, signed a TV series production deal in July 2003 with

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book author, writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which later bec ...

POW! Entertainment POW! Entertainment Inc. is an American media production company formed in 2001 by Gill Champion, Arthur Lieberman and former Marvel Comics editor and publisher Stan Lee. POW! is made up of two companies: POW! Entertainment, Inc. (POW! Inc.), a ...

for ''Stan Lee's Secret Super Six''. In 2006, DIC was in development on ''Secret Millionaires Club'' with

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

chairman

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of the conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his investment success, Buffett is ...

. A Squared Entertainment (A², A Squared) was formed by Heyward and his wife, Amy Moynihan Heyward, in 2009 as an animation company. The company had an initial four-show celebrity-inspired cartoon slate to be seen on AOL starting in Q4 2009 with the last starting in 2010. The four shows would then switch from a webisode format of 26 episodes of three-to-five-minutes, to TV with 13, 22-minute shows. The slate then consisted of ''

Secret Millionaires Club ''Secret Millionaires Club'' is an American educational animated series that aired on The Hub / Hub Network from October 23, 2011 to January 11, 2017. Qubo would later air reruns of the series from 2016 to 2021. The series features famed inves ...

'', ''GiGi and The Green Team'' (working title), ''Little Martha'' (working title) and ''Kosmos''. ''Kosmos'' was a series to be based on

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including e ...

's life as a famous astronomer. A²'s first animated program was ''Secret Millionaires Club'', which features an animated Buffett as a secret mentor to a group of enterprising children. ''Martha & Friends'' with

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail business woman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety ...

and ''Gisele & the Green Team'' with

Gisele Bundchen '' Giselle'' is a ballet. Giselle, Gisele, Gisèle, Gisselle, may also refer to: People * Giselle (given name), a given name and list of people with the name * Gisele (given name) and 'Gisèle', a given name and list of people with the name * G ...

were created and launched by A Square. In February 2010, A² partnered with POW! Entertainment and

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

to create the

Stan Lee Comics Stan Lee's Mighty 7 (SLAM 7) is a media franchise of a fictional superhero team originally published as a Stan Lee Comics line comic book title. History ''Stan Lee's Secret Super Six'' property of Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment was signed with An ...

joint venture for the Stan Lee's Super Seven franchise. On December 7, 2010, A Squared launched ''Gisele & The Green Team'' webseries in conjunction with AOLkids.com and

Gisele Bündchen Gisele Caroline Bündchen (, , born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian fashion model. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid models in the world. In 2007, Bündchen was the 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry and earned the ...

. In April 2012, ''

Stan Lee's Mighty 7 Stan Lee's Mighty 7 (SLAM 7) is a media franchise of a fictional superhero team originally published as a Stan Lee Comics line comic book title. History ''Stan Lee's Secret Super Six'' property of Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment was signed with A ...

'' was slated to be developed for other media formats via A Squared Elxsi Entertainment LLC (A2E2). A²E2 was a joint-venture between A Squared Entertainment (A²) and

Tata Elxsi The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate group of companies headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest business conglomerate, with products and services in over 160 countries, and operations in 100 ...

formed in January 2011 which Elxsi ends in October 2012. Also in 2012, A² took over Archies' ownership stake in Stan Lee Comics. By November 2013, A² had ''Thomas Edison's Secret Lab'' in development.

Pacific Entertainment

Pacific Entertainment Corporation was founded by ''Baby Genius'' creators Klaus Moeller and Larry Balaban in 2006. In January 2006, Pacific Entertainment purchased ''Baby Genius'' and other lines from

Genius Products Genius Products (formerly known as Genius Entertainment) was a home entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book ab ...

, Inc. for $3 million. The other lines were preschool brands such as ''Wee Worship'' and the

Little Tikes Little Tikes is an American manufacturer of children's toys, with headquarters and manufacturing located in Hudson, Ohio. The company also has other manufacturing and distribution facilities in Asia and Europe. Little Tikes' products are mostly l ...

music and DVD series. Genius Products retained exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the lines. GBI licensed Baby Genius in January 2011 to Jakks Pacific's Tollytots division for a musical and early learning toy line. At Toy Fair 2012, Tollytots introduced the line with 20 products. In December 2011, Pacific Entertainment Corporation changed its name to Genius Brands International, Inc. (GBI)''. Genius Brands digitized its ''Baby Genius'' book line in July 2013 via a deal with Graphicly.

As Genius Brands

Genius Brands International (GBI) was formed in November 2013 from the merger between A² Entertainment and pre-merger Genius Brands (former Pacific Entertainment), with the Heywards of A2 taking over as top executives. Pre-merged Genius Brands CEO Klaus Moeller moved to vice president of special markets at GBI. GBI's board of directors included former California governor Gray Davis and American Greetings Corp. president-COO Jeff Weiss. The ''Baby Genius

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

subscription service launched in April 2014. GBI launched a VOD channel of children's entertainment called ''Kid Genius'' in October 2015, through Comcast's Xfinity On Demand. In June 2014, Genius Brands agreed to license ''Baby Genius'', ''Secret Millionaires Club'' and ''Thomas Edison's Secret Lab'' to

LeapFrog Enterprises LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. is an educational entertainment and electronics company based in Emeryville, California. LeapFrog designs, develops, and markets technology-based learning products and related content for the education of children f ...

for kids' learning tablets. The first few Leap Frog tablet apps from the deal were released in December 2014, with two for both ''Baby Genius'' and ''Secret Millionaires Club''. GBI issued and sold 4.3 million shares of stock and warrants in November 2014 to investors and management at par $1. The raised working capital would be used for brand marketing, new property acquisition and development and the ''Kid Genius'' channel.

2016–2019

Penguin Young Readers and author/illustrator Anna Dewdney signed an agreement with Genius to develop animated content and manage licensing for the '' Llama Llama'' franchise in February 2016. The products, from apparel to toys, are slated to arrive in 2016. In February 2016, Genius Brands and

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home entertainment distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures libra ...

announced a multi-year marketing and distribution agreement for four existing properties plus three under development. Existing properties under the deal are ''SpacePop,'' a new original ''Baby Genius'' series, ''Secret Millionaires Club'' and ''Stan Lee's Mighty 7''. The new ''Baby Genius'' series would be relaunched on Amazon.com in September. The company paired for another Sony agreement in April 2016. This agreement was with

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

Legacy Recordings Legacy Recordings is an American record label that is a division of Sony Music. Formed in 1990 after Sony's acquisition of CBS Records, Legacy originally handled the archives of Sony Music-owned labels Columbia Records and Epic Records. In 2 ...

for the Genius Brands Music label. The label would have two age-focused imprints, for toddlers, Baby Genius, and children-to-tweens, Kid Genius. In September 2016, GBI had teamed up with

Rob Minkoff Robert Ralph Minkoff (born August 11, 1962) is an American director, animator, and producer. He is best known for co-directing ''The Lion King'' (along with Roger Allers), and live-action films including ''Stuart Little (film), Stuart Little'' (1 ...

and Shane Morris on a preschool animated series. The series is

Rainbow Rangers ''Rainbow Rangers'' is an American animated television series co-produced by Genius Brands and Telegael Teoranta which premiered on the Nick Jr. Channel on November 5, 2018. The series follows seven nine-year-old girls who reside in the kingdom ...

, featuring others of the rainbow magical girls, who protect the earth. Main designed were by Brittany Myers and Ruben Aquino. At the time, the company expect to have the concept debut as a third quarter 2017 special and a full series start in second quarter 2018. Kid Genius channel expanded to a small network of on demand channels with its offerings first on Comcast on Demand with a Baby Genius TV channel. The company launched Kid Genius Cartoons Plus! on Amazon Channels starting on September 28, 2017. Plus included all GBI programming plus other acquired programming. Genius Brands Network in July 2019 added content from kids gaming company Tankee to its channels. In January 2017,

expanded its distribution deal to all properties and took an equity stake in Genius Brands. In November 2017, the company filed with the SEC to resell 1.65 million shares of stock. Genius issued a convertible debt round bringing in $4.5 million in August 2018 which was led by financier Robert Wolf of 32 Ventures and was oversubscribed bringing in both existing and new investors. In September 2018, Bank Lemi extended a $6 million bank facility allowing Genius to produce a second season of Llama Llama.

2020–2023

In May 2020, the company's stock value jumped 2000% with four announced stock sales that month, after being put on notice by NASDAQ for low share value, which might have triggered delisting. The reason for the jump was the company's announcement of the launch date of its Kartoon Channel, and Mattel's Rainbow Rangers toys gaining shelf space at Wal-Mart in summer 2020. With an announcement of registering a stockholder stock sale on June 4, the stock broke its run up with a 13% drop. Kartoon Channel, which is the merger of its existing channels, launched on June 15, 2020, on four more platforms. On July 6, 2020, Genius Brands acquired exclusive worldwide rights to use

's name, physical likeness and signature from

as well as licensing rights to his name and over 100 of POW's original IPs. The assets will be placed under a new joint-venture with POW!, called Stan Lee Universe, managed by Genius.

Michael E. Uslan Michael E. Uslan (; born June 2, 1951) is an American lawyer and film producer. Uslan has also dabbled in writing and teaching; he was the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university. Early life Uslan ...

was hired to advise Genius on Lee Universe film and TV projects. Genius then arranged a publishing deal with

for Stan Lee Universe comic book imprint starting with ''

Kindergarten Cop ''Kindergarten Cop'' is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and distributed by Universal Pictures. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough Los Angeles police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teac ...

'' adaptation title. On October 27, 2021, Genius announced they would acquire the Canada-based

Wow Unlimited Media Wow Unlimited Media Inc. (stylized as WOW! Unlimited Media) is a Canadian animation and media holding company. It was formed as a result of a merger between Rainmaker Entertainment, Frederator Networks and Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment (EHE). The com ...

for $53 Million, allowing Genius to expand to the country. The transaction was slated to be completed in Q1 2022, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition was completed on April 7 of that year. On January 4, 2023, Genius Brands announced that they would sell a 50% stake in the

Frederator Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert in January 1997. It is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc., itself a part of Kartoon Studios' Canadian holding company Wow Unlimited Media. T ...

shows ''

Bravest Warriors ''Bravest Warriors'' is an animated series created by Pendleton Ward. Set in the year 3085 onwards, it follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emoti ...

'', ''

Bee and PuppyCat ''Bee and PuppyCat'' is an American animated television series created and written by Natasha Allegri. The series revolves around Bee (voiced by Allyn Rachel), an unemployed woman in her early twenties, who encounters a mysterious creature nam ...

'' and then-upcoming series ''Catbug'' to Japanese company

Toho International Toho International, Inc. is an American company that is a subsidiary of Japanese film company Toho Co., Ltd. Founded in May 1953, the company was initially created to sell films by Toho in North and South America; amongst their first features to ...

. The deal would allow the two companies to provide frameworks, to co-produce new content based on the properties and develop consumer product campaigns. Toho would also gain Asian distribution rights to the properties.

As Kartoon Studios

2023–present

Genius Brands was renamed as Kartoon Studios on June 26 and would transfer its shares to

NYSE American NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...

. In July 2023, Kartoon Studios partnered with

VeVe A ''veve'' (also spelled ''vèvè'' or ''vevè'') is a religious symbol commonly used in different branches of Vodun throughout the African diaspora, such as Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo. The ''veve'' acts as a "beacon" for the '' lwa'', a ...

to release

non-fungible tokens In economics and law, fungibility is the property of something whose individual units are considered fundamentally interchangeable with each other. For example, the fungibility of money means that a $100 bill (note) is considered entirely equi ...

of Stan Lee, which sold out nearly instantly.

Units

Current

*A Squared Entertainment LLC: is Genius Brand's brand management and licensing subsidiary. *Genius Brands Music, music label with two imprints, Baby Genius, Kid Genius *

LLC: a joint venture with

(currently only for the ''

'' franchise) *Kartoon Channel, formerly Kid Genius Network *

Frederator Networks Frederator Networks, Inc. is a media company founded by Fred Seibert. It makes and distributes cartoons, often on Channel Frederator, and through its in-house animation studio Frederator Studios. It is the largest distributor of independent anima ...

Mainframe Studios Mainframe Studios is a Canadian animation studio owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Gr ...

Former

*Kid Genius Cartoon Channel *Baby Genius TV *Kid Genius Cartoons Plus!

Kartoon Channel

Kartoon Channel (formerly Kid Genius Channel) is a

channel owned by Kartoon Studios. The Kid Genius Channel was launched by GBI with children's entertainment in October 2015, through Comcast's Xfinity On Demand. Debra Pierson was named general manager for the channel in March 2016. In December 2016,

Margaret Loesch Margaret Ann Loesch (, ) is an American television executive and producer. She is the former President and CEO of Discovery Communications and Hasbro Inc's joint venture television network Hub Network. She stepped down from her position in 2014. ...

was named Executive Chairman of the Kids Genius Channel with Pierson promoted to channel president. The channel was added to several

over-the-top media services An over-the-top media service (also known as over-the-top television, or simply OTT) is a digital distribution service of video and audio delivered directly to viewers via the public Internet, rather than through an over-the-air, cable, satel ...

including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire, the week of February 2017. Kartoon Channel, which is the merger of its existing channels, was announced to be launched on June 15, 2020, on four more platforms. Loesch would continue to serve as executive chair, while adding former president of Walt Disney Television production company David Neuman as

chief creative officer The title Chief Creative Officer (CCO) typically describes the highest-ranking position of a creative team within a media company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, ...

of the

streaming service Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

Programming

;Initial *''

'' (Plus!) *''

Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? ''Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?'' is an American live action/animated television series based on the series of computer games. The show was produced by DIC Productions L.P. and originally aired from February 5, 1994 to January 2, 1999, o ...

'' *'' Dennis the Menace'' ;Later acquired *''Eddie Is a Yeti'' (Plus!) *''Nancy Drew Codes & Clues'' *''LaGolda'', a

UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational for-profit company specializing in health insurance and health care services based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Selling insurance products under UnitedHealthcare, and health care ser ...

production of a soccer bilingual animated children's series (Plus!) ;Baby Genius TV *''The Adventures of Paddington Bear'' *''Rainbow Valley Fire Department'' *''Baby Prodigy'' *''Igloo-Gloo'' *''Pirates Adventures in Art'' *''So! Smart'' *''Todd World'' *''Baby Genius Nursery Rhymes'' *''Baby Genius Animals'' ;Plus! *''

Inspector Gadget ''Inspector Gadget'' is a media franchise that began in 1983 with the DIC Entertainment animated television series '' Inspector Gadget''. Since the original series, there have been many spin-offs based on the show, including additional animated ...

'' *'' Liberty's Kids'' *''

DinoSquad ''DinoSquad'' is an American animated television series that was produced by DIC Entertainment and aired on the KEWLopolis block on CBS from November 3, 2007 to December 6, 2008. The show is about five teenagers, each with the power to turn i ...

'' *''

Carl Squared Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

'' *''Heads Up'' *''The Day Henry Met'' *''So Smart!'' *''Baby Prodigy'' *''Happy Kids''

Production library

References

External links

* {{Finance links , name = Genius Brands , symbol = GNUS , sec_cik = GNUS , yahoo = GNUS , google = GNUS 2013 establishments in California Companies based in Beverly Hills, California American companies established in 2013 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Entertainment companies established in 2013 Television production companies of the United States