An hour after the news broke that Hasbro had made a takeover approach to Mattel that would unite the world's two largest toymakers, Mattel hosted a doll party. Little girls and their parent chaperones made their way through 3 700m2 of ritzy real estate devoted to American Girl, Mattel's crown jewel luxury doll. The maker of Barbie is trying to resurrect its glamour, seeking to capture nostalgia for American Girl dolls that became ubiquitous in the 1990s, with the opening two weeks ago of a flagship store in New York's Rockefeller Plaza. But American Girl is under threat. After an era of stable growth, sales of the $115 (R1500) doll slipped in 2015 and 2016, and are down 18% so far this year. Mattel has had an equally torrid year, suspending its dividend last month after having lost a third of its stock value as sales dropped 10%. Privately owned Danish group Lego is also battling falling sales. Having grown to become the world's most profitable toymaker in the $90-billion (R1.2-tril...
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