Profits are down for 4Kids last year

[Funkatron]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=8562

I'm not saying anything more.

[Dark Fact]

4Kids CEO Al Kahn said he was "Extraordinarily disappointed & furious at the results of this year.”

Somehow, I can picture Kahn going on a violent rampage breaking office desks and computers.

[Go-chin]

Somehow, I can picture Kahn going on a violent rampage breaking office desks and computers.

nah, he's got pictures of Doremi to keep him company on those long nights.

[D.Shaffer]

Not to mention the Pretty Cure girls. I expect we'll hear something about that sooner or later.

Do you think the shareholders are shoting 'KKkaaaaaaahhhhhnnnn!!!!!' yet?

[Master Moron]

4Kids CEO Al Kahn said he was "Extraordinarily disappointed & furious at the results of this year.”

He should be furious. He should be furious that the producer of Sonic X hasn't done any research about the property. He should be furious with whoever decided it was a good idea to cut out over a dozen episodes of footage from One Piece! He should be furious with everyone who tells him it's a good idea to replace the original background music of anime with generic garbage. Let's hope that he's furious enough to fire his incompetent staff.

[ShadowGUN]

Somehow, I can picture Kahn going on a violent rampage breaking office desks and computers.

* imagines Khan turning green and wearing purple pants*

"Al Khan smash!!"

[Beat]

Furious, huh? Welcome to our world!

[Undrave]

He should be furious. He should be furious that the producer of Sonic X hasn't done any research about the property. He should be furious with whoever decided it was a good idea to cut out over a dozen episodes of footage from One Piece! He should be furious with everyone who tells him it's a good idea to replace the original background music of anime with generic garbage. Let's hope that he's furious enough to fire his incompetent staff.

I doubt it, 4Kids philosophy is in agreement with Kahn's philosophy and his general attitude trickles down to the lower level, all the way to the directors and editors. If Kahn was someone else then he would act that way.

The idea of Kahn going on a rampage is really funny... especially an EDITED rampage XD

[ObeliskNoKami]

What I wouldn't give to see the day someone posts a title that goes a little something like this "4Kids declares bankrupcy, Al Kahn declared mentally-inept, and One Piece bought by Viz Media"...

I think I will go back to sleep now *yawn* (stayed up playing that new Yugioh GBA game, it rules).

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Another battle won by the anime fans and intelligent people.

The war is far from over, but the scales are tipping in our favor.

[Arxane]

He should be furious. He should be furious that the producer of Sonic X hasn't done any research about the property. He should be furious with whoever decided it was a good idea to cut out over a dozen episodes of footage from One Piece! He should be furious with everyone who tells him it's a good idea to replace the original background music of anime with generic garbage. Let's hope that he's furious enough to fire his incompetent staff.

I'm not sure One Piece can be used as an example for 4Kids' declining profits, because the press release says that One Piece was one of the properties where revenue increased. However, on a brighter side, the press release does say 4Kids wants to focus on properties it owns as opposed to properties it licenses, which hopefully means 4Kids won't be looking into licensing anything else in the near and distant future.

[Grenzer]

And who did not expect this? Come on people, the signs have been there all along; 4K!ds is a company in deep finacial trouble. It has almost been like some sort of sad farce, between Kahn's arrogance and the misery parade of crappily marketed properties. So are the share-holders going to be rebelling now, or will they swallow another year of losses?

[Undrave]

I'm not sure One Piece can be used as an example for 4Kids' declining profits, because the press release says that One Piece was one of the properties where revenue increased. However, on a brighter side, the press release does say 4Kids wants to focus on properties it owns as opposed to properties it licenses, which hopefully means 4Kids won't be looking into licensing anything else in the near and distant future.

They probably still will, I mean they just liscenced PreCure ne? But they'll probably try to slow on these so I guess THAT is a win for us.

[Karl Olson]

Well, the thing was, previously they were making more of a profit. However, the biggest shift this year for them has been losing merch rights to Pokemon and Nintendo as a whole. That must have really kicked them in the teeth financially. Add to that constant rounds board members exercising stock options at cheap prices, only to then vote for company buy backs, and they are getting from atleast two major, quantifable directions. Of course, the rest of their shows continue to be mediocre or pathetic in terms of success (especially compared to the runaway success of Naruto,) and that's not helping, but they are really got in the pure merchandise side of things lately, and that's where the majority of the money is anyway from what I can tell.

PS: PreCure is either going to finish them off as a licensor, or let them cheat death once more. However, given how close it is to their biggest failure to date, Tokyo Mew Mew, and given that it could further still face competition from PPGZ by the time PreCure hits America, it's not looking up for them.

[William C. Maune]

And who did not expect this? Come on people, the signs have been there all along; 4K!ds is a company in deep finacial trouble.

Things may not be as good financially for 4Kids as they once were, but they don't appear to be anywhere near deep financial trouble. Profits may be down, but the fact is there are still profits, and that is much better than being in the red. Additionally, they still have millions of dollars in the bank and they do not have any debts. Having no debt is a pretty big positive for any company.

[Karl Olson]

Things may not be as good financially for 4Kids as they once were, but they don't appear to be anywhere near deep financial trouble. Profits may be down, but the fact is there are still profits, and that is much better than being in the red. Additionally, they still have millions of dollars in the bank and they do not have any debts. Having no debt is a pretty big positive for any company.

However, they've been consistently siphoning those millions down by doing stock buybacks, which would be fine as it could allow the major investors to take the company private again one day, except that their execs have a habit of continually exercising their options to purchase a bunch of stock from the company at a low price, only to have that cycled back into the company during a buyback not that much later. As such, they basically load some people's pockets while draining the bank account, doing nothing but vaguely and temporarily inflating the stock price, and they've been doing this for over a year a now. That's not a healthy situation.

[William C. Maune]

However, they've been consistently siphoning those millions down by doing stock buybacks, which would be fine as it could allow the major investors to take the company private again one day, except that their execs have a habit of continually exercising their options to purchase a bunch of stock from the company at a low price, only to have that cycled back into the company during a buyback not that much later. As such, they basically load some people's pockets while draining the bank account, doing nothing but vaguely and temporarily inflating the stock price, and they've been doing this for over a year a now. That's not a healthy situation.

I agree that it isn't healthy and if the trend continues they will end up in deep financial trouble. They just aren't in deep financial trouble yet.

[Sketch]

Why exactly are you defending 4kids financial state? I don't see a point in that. They are probably in more trouble than they let on. But somehow they always find a way to crawl out of whatever hole they find themselves in.

I find it interesting that Kahn mentions he's frustraited about the lack of success this year. Well he should have seen it coming if it actually didn't.

It's also interesitng that 4kidsTV is getting a 2 year extention and Kahn says they'll be focusing on owned properties instead of licensed properties now. Unfortunately that doesn't mean they wont license more series they will just make more original series on top of the usual. Boys shows are pretty safe though. Too many failures in that department is currently making them turn to Shoujo but it's only a matter of time before those fail.

4kids has survived on luck so far but their luck has run out. Until they understand that no one else treats their licenses as poorly as they do they'll never be a better company and they wont find finacial stability... but they wont roll over and die either unfortunately.

[Arxane]

Why exactly are you defending 4kids financial state?

I'm guessing he doesn't want people to blow information out of proportion. A lot of people obviouslt want 4Kids to disappear off the face of the earth and thus will latch onto any kind of information like this. However, if things are hyped to be worse than they really are for 4Kids, that could potentially set things up for major disappointment down the road upon the (hopefully unlikely) possiblity 4Kids' profits go back up.

While 4Kids' lower profits is certainly a good sign for those who despise 4Kids, we can't truly announce 4Kids' end until they're in the red and the words "Chapter" and "11" (or maybe "7") appear next to each other.

[William C. Maune]

Why exactly are you defending 4kids financial state? I don't see a point in that. They are probably in more trouble than they let on. But somehow they always find a way to crawl out of whatever hole they find themselves in.

I'm not "defending" 4Kids financial state. I personally don't like most of their shows; I can barely make it through an episode of One Piece (although I should catch some TMNT sometime). However, just because I don't like most of their shows doesn't mean their financial state is necessarily one way or another; they are two completely different subjects. One is an opinion of quality, the other is an analysis of facts. In looking at the facts we have regarding their financial situation, it is mixed. There is a downward trend and unhealthy actions being taken by officers on the one hand. On the other side, they are still in the black (just less so), they have money in the bank and they have no debt (and thus no creditors). If the trend continues, those positive factors will be erased and they will be in big financial trouble. However, they aren't there yet.

Edit: And what Arxane said.