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| }} | equity = US$727.46 Million (2012)〔 | num_employees = 27,500 (2012)〔 | owner = Weiss Family | subsid = | homepage = }} American Greetings Corporation, LLC is the world’s largest greeting card company. Based in Brooklyn, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such as wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic expressive content (e.g., ringtones and images for cell phones). In addition, the company owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts, Just For You, and Gibson brands. American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland (now American Greetings Properties), includes copyrighted properties such as ''Care Bears'', ''Topsy and Tim'', ''The Get Along Gang'', ''Popples'' and ''Holly Hobbie''. American Greetings also holds an exclusive license for Nickelodeon characters. ==History== Founded in 1906 by Polish immigrant Jacob Sapirstein (1885–1987), who sold cards from a horse-drawn cart, American Greetings has been run by members of the family since its inception. Irving I. Stone (Sapirstein's oldest son, who changed his surname to Stone) was stuffing envelopes at age five, handling the business during his father's illness when he was nine, and worked for the company full-time upon leaving high school. He was succeeded as CEO by his son-in-law Morry Weiss in 1987, and Stone took the title "Founder-Chairman" previously held by his father, when Weiss became chairman in 1992, before dying in 2000. In 1993, American Greetings began sponsoring the ''Entertainment Tonight'' Birthdays, and remained sponsor until 2000, when competitor Hallmark Cards assumed sponsorship. In 1999, the company bought rival Gibson Greetings and united the second and third largest U.S. greeting card makers. In 2003, Morry Weiss's sons Zev and Jeffrey became CEO and President respectively; Morry Weiss remains Chairman. In early 2007, American Greetings replaced Kellogg's as the sponsor for ''Dragon Tales''. American Greetings has also branched out onto the Internet, and owns a network of websites. October 25, 2007, it announced the purchase of Webshots from CNET for $45 million in cash. In October 2005, American Greetings recalled its ''Sesame Street'' toy sunglasses sold from December 2003 through August 2005, because the lenses can separate from the frames, posing a choking hazard to young children. In 2010, American Greetings announced plans to move its headquarters from Brooklyn, Ohio to a new facility at Crocker Park within the nearby city of Westlake. However, in 2013, the company announced it would delay moving its operations to Westlake. Construction had been scheduled to start in early 2013, and American Greetings said it was only delaying the $150 to $200 million project. In June 2012, American Greetings acquired assets from Clinton Cards PLC together with some of its subsidiaries. American Greetings went private once again in 2013, thus removing itself from all the public markets, agreeing to pay $18.20 per share, valuing the company at $878 million. In 2014, American Greetings sold its Brooklyn, Ohio headquarters to developers and began renting its current offices from the new owners until the move to Westlake, which is scheduled for mid-2016. American Greetings operates with four divisions: *North American Social Expression Products, *International Social Expression Products, *AG Interactive (Webshots was formerly part of AG Interactive) *a non-reportable operating segment, sometimes referred to as "Retail"〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「American Greetings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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