The latest addition to the Walt Disney Co. family is the Baby Einstein Co., a producer of early-learning videos, DVDs and audio CDs for babies and toddlers. A Wall Street Journal report puts the deal at approximately $25 million.
The closely held Baby Einstein Co., based in Lone Tree, Colo., was founded by former teacher Julie Aigner-Clark and has won many awards for its educational products. The combined line of Baby Einstein video titles, including Baby Van Gogh and Baby Shakespeare, has sold more than eight million copies to date. Aigner-Clark and her husband, Bill Clark, will stay on as consultants to Disney. Under the Disney umbrella, there are already plans to extend the Baby Einstein brand into a Little Einstein product line aimed at preschoolers, set to launch in "late 2002," according to a statement by Walt Disney Co. president and COO Robert Iger.
This new deal expands on an exclusive, multiyear licensing agreement between Baby Einstein and Disney Publishing Worldwide, announced in March 2001, which allows Disney Publishing Worldwide to develop a global publishing program based on Baby Einstein products. Baby Einstein had also partnered with Hasbro Inc. to create a line of related toys. The first books and toys springing from these arrangements hit retail outlets this fall.
