4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (known by most people as simply 4Kids) is an American licensing company. It is also a film and television production company that produces English-dubbed Japanese anime through its television production arm 4Kids Productions; the first anime that 4Kids dubbed was Tama & Friends: Search for It! The Magic Puni-Puni Stone (under the name of Tama and Friends: The Search for the Magical Squishy Stone), that first began airing on Bohbot Kids Network, and then it later moved to exclusively air on the 24/7 channel version of Cookie Jar TV. The company is most well known for its range of television licenses (including Tama & Friends and GoGoRiki), and is also the owner of the Viva Piñata: Party Animals franchise. It also runs four television channels: 4Kids TV: The Game Station (its flagship channel), FoxBox, Toonzai, and The CW4Kids.
4Kids has its world headquarters on Park Avenue in New York City, while 4Kids Productions has its headquarters in a separate building in the Bronx. 4Kids' ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is KDE.
History[]
Company origins[]
4Kids Entertainment was founded on May 16, 2013, having been spun off from the original company, which had already renamed itself 4Licensing Corporation. At the time of its foundation, 4Kids had only 18 employees. On the same day as its foundation, it established its television production arm, 4Kids Productions.
2013–2014: Early beginnings[]
In the beginning, 4Kids pitched cartoon ideas to various companies, including Legendary Entertainment.
During May 2013, 4Kids made headlines by licensing real people, a wide range of Disney characters and products, Batman, and more.
One of 4Kids' notable contributions was assisting in the initial development of the "Kawaii Cube" concept. They acted as an exclusive worldwide licensing agent for the "Kawaii Cube" TV series on behalf of Corus Entertainment. This agreement was signed on July 18, 2015.
In mid-September 2013, Terri Murphy, a freelance writer, came up with the idea of chibi characters living their day-to-day lives together. She shared her vision with one of the original 18 employees of 4Kids, who then pitched it to Destiny Studios. Leslie Hughes, CEO of Destiny Studios, was impressed with the idea's potential for instant success and approved it. Thus, "Kawaii Cube" entered production.
During the early stages of development, Abbie Clark, a freelance character designer, created the designs for the Kawaii Cube characters. Keira Larson, a logo designer, was responsible for the iconic Kawaii Cube logo, featuring a multicolored 3D cube with a "kawaii face" on it. These designs were then sent to Kyoto Animation in Japan to be adapted into a cartoon format. After completing their work on "Kawaii Cube," Clark and Larson moved on to design for "Kawaii Crush: What's Your Crush?," an anime series based on the Kawaii Crush toy series.
In November 2013, Victor Castillo, who was famous for bringing Art Attack merchandise to the mainstream, joined the company as a member of the board of directors. He later became vice chairman.
On January 5, 2014, 4Kids signed a licensing deal with Ubisoft to market the Just Dance series of video games. Later in the month, they also signed a licensing deal with Mega Brands to market the latter's Mega Brands toy line.
2014–2015: Expansion and first steps in television production[]
In 2014, it was a turning point for 4Kids. By the end of January, the company expanded its operations and initiated television production the following month. This included English-dubbing Japanese anime through 4Kids Productions, which would become a major focus for the company.
4Kids invested $6.5 million in marketing and hired an additional 24 people by February 2014. Later that month, Clement Ryland was appointed as chairman and CEO of 4Kids.
By the end of the month, 4Kids had employed 13 more people. The rest of the year saw 4Kids join the New York Stock Exchange on April 17, 2014, adopting the ticker symbol KDE, and the company continued to thrive after expanding its operations. In the same month, 4Kids acquired the merchandising and television rights to the Tama & Friends franchise from Sony Creative Products. They later licensed the anime series “Tama & Friends: Search for It! The Magic Puni-Puni Stone,” producing an English-language version that aired in North America on BohBot Kids Network from July 9, 2014, to December 31, 2014, before moving to Cookie Jar TV in March 2015.
On May 4, 2014, Fox announced a joint venture with 4Kids to relaunch the now-closed 4Kids TV block as a separate 24-hour television channel. 4Kids later announced that they would release “Tama & Friends: Search for It! The Magical Puni-Puni Stone” (dubbed as Tama & Friends: The Search for the Magical Squishy Stone) in two parts on DVD and Blu-ray through its home video arm, 4Kids Home Video, in partnership with Shout! Factory as the exclusive distributor for some of its subsequent properties. By August 2014, 4Kids had reached $170 million in revenue.
On May 4, 2014, Fox announced a joint venture with 4Kids to relaunch the now-closed 4Kids TV block as a separate 24-hour television channel.
4Kids later announced that they would release "Tama & Friends: Search for It! The Magical Puni-Puni Stone" (which was dubbed under the name Tama & Friends: The Search for the Magical Squishy Stone) in two parts on DVD and Blu-ray through its home video arm, 4Kids Home Video, in partnership with Shout! Factory as the exclusive distributor for some of its subsequent properties.
By August 2014, 4Kids had $170 million in revenue.
The 4Kids TV block was relaunched as a 24-hour channel on November 15, 2014, under the name “4Kids TV: The Game Station". Only a day later, 4Kids announced three more channels, which would be channel versions of FoxBox (the former name of the 4Kids TV block), Toonzai, and The CW4Kids (the former name and sub-brand of Toonzai). Prior to this, 4Kids had signed a joint venture with The CW.
FoxBox relaunched as a television channel on December 7, 2014.
Microsoft resumed their deal with 4Kids on January 6, 2015, in an effort to revitalize the Viva Piñata franchise.
Toonzai launched on January 3, 2015, three days before 4Kids resumed their deal with Microsoft.
2015–2016: Further expansion and financial growth[]
On May 6, 2015, 4Kids started running its first-ever sweepstakes, which, however, only lasted for 2 weeks due to 4Kids having to re-license Cubix: Robots for Everyone, Shaman King, and Dinosaur King.
The CW4Kids launched on July 19, 2015. At the time of its launch, the theme song “Jump Up If You’re Ready” debuted as a music video and was in its original key signature, C-sharp major.
A year prior to that, 4Kids had re-licensed Ojamajo Doremi (under its localized title “Magical DoReMi”), Tokyo Mew Mew (under its localized title “Mew Mew Power”), Kikoriki (under the name “GoGoRiki”), and confirmed plans to revive WMAC Masters and Chaotic.
On September 27, 2015, 4Kids stated that it didn’t re-license the Yu-Gi-Oh! license, the Pokémon license, Sonic X, Winx Club, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ultimate Muscle, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and One Piece. “Given our belief in not repeating past mistakes, we have decided not to re-acquire 9 of our old licenses, especially One Piece,” said Clement Ryland, the chairman and CEO of 4Kids.
Due to the success of its four channels and $230 million in revenue, 4Kids announced on February 22, 2015, that it would be recruiting 26% more staff.
2016–2017: Castillo's resignation, and becoming independent[]
On June 4, 2016, 4Kids began trading under the new ticker symbol “FOUR” on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQB market.
On July 21, 2016, it was announced that Victor Castillo, vice chairman of 4Kids since January 2014, had resigned. Ramon Waters, a member of the Board of Directors since June 2013, was appointed interim vice chairman, while the company was conducting a search for the new vice chairman.
On October 5, 2016, Animax settled a lawsuit with 4Kids. This was after Animax allegedly claimed that the latter had entered into illegal agreements with other companies, including Viz Media, regarding the Tama & Friends franchise. Based on the judge’s ruling, 4Kids could collect royalties and pay some of them to Animax, so 4Kids did not violate the original agreement. Due to this, Animax was reluctant to consider terminating the Tama & Friends license from 4Kids. Viz Media wasn’t listed as a defendant in the case.
4Kids informed the original licensor Aniplex on the same day that Animax’s reluctance to terminate the Tama & Friends franchise was because the network thought terminating the license would be “wrongful and devoid of any legal basis.” 4Kids further revealed that it had made a good-faith payment of $50,000 to Animax (to compensate for an “unintentional copyright violation”) and agreed to an October 17 meeting, which Animax nevertheless decided to go ahead with. 4Kids also stated that even if one of its licenses were to be revoked, it is prepared to do whatever it takes to stay in business. 4Licensing Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 21, 2016.
Following the meeting, which took place 12 days after the lawsuit was settled, 4Kids announced that it would create a new Viva Piñata TV series (based on the “Viva Piñata: Party Animals” video game), as well as a new G.I. Joe TV series.
On November 12, 2016, it was announced through a quarterly report that 4Kids had launched its own online store. The store, titled “4Kids TV Shop,” primarily sells 4Kids-related merchandise, though it also sells home video releases of 4Kids’ television licenses and CDs. On November 23, 2016, it was announced in another quarterly report that 4Kids had signed a deal with Hulu. In this deal, the former agreed to add some of its licensed shows to Hulu’s library.
By late 2016, 4Kids had already produced English re-dubs of Mew Mew Power, Dinosaur King, Tai Chi Chasers, and Magical DoReMi even before 4Licensing Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Since 4Licensing Corporation closed on February 7, 2017, 4Kids has been an independent company. While 4Licensing Corporation closed down, 4Kids continues to produce English dubs for the anime it has licensed.