... as opposed to this media posting 18 months ago:
Brainytoys' share price wiggles to new high
Mark Hawthorne
March 14, 2007
A DEAL to sell Wiggles-branded toys in North America has sent the share price of Perth-based Brainytoys to a record high.
The share price of the company, which employs just seven full-time staff, soared 77 per cent to 17¢ on news of the deal with HIT Entertainment.
The agreement will allow Brainytoys to sell Wiggles-branded products in the US and Canada using its MemoToys technology.
Australian-developed MemoToys was crucial to landing the deal. It allows one of the marque products — a Wiggles Big Red Car — to be pushed along a route in a house or living room by a child, and then repeat that route itself. First US deliveries of the toy, designed in Australia and made in China, are expected in May.
HIT Entertainment — formerly Henson International Television, which was started by Muppets creator Jim Henson in 1989 — handles all the Wiggles' North American licensing deals and has been central to the rise of the children's entertainment group as a "super brand". The Wiggles have earned $150 million over the past three years.
"We're very pleased," says Brainytoys managing director Alex Aguero. "It just goes to show the strength of the Wiggles brand. We did a licensing deal for the new Jerry Seinfeld movie last month and that had a negligible affect on our share price."
Brainytoys has signed a deal with Dreamworks to make electronic toys for its animated film Bee Movie.
Brainytoys is the only toy developer on the Australian Stock Exchange, and Aguero says investors are not quite sure what to make of the company.
"I often liken us to a wildcat drilling company, which might drill 50 exploration wells in the hope of finding oil.
"We have more than 50 new products in our pipeline, and we only need one or two of those to be blockbuster toys to succeed.
"The difference is that it doesn't cost us millions to develop a toy, like it does to drill a well."
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