Toymaker Mattel is being sued by children’s hospital UCLA for backing out of a $49 million donation – despite raking in $1.3billion in profit in the last three years.
Mattel – the company behind Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price – pledged in 2017 to donate $49million to UCLA to support its children’s hospital.
UCLA now claims the hospital never came through with the money and ‘as a last resort’ has filed a lawsuit accusing them of breach of contract to try to get them to honor their pledge.
A spokesperson said: ‘As a last resort, UCLA Health has taken legal action to compel Mattel Inc. to honor its $49 million pledge.
‘Litigation is not the University’s preferred path. UCLA Health made multiple good-faith attempts to resolve this matter through meaningful dialogue, and those efforts were unsuccessful.’
UCLA is suing Mattel over a $49million donation that never came through
Mattel – the company behind Barbie (Margot Robbie pictured in the recent movie), Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price – pledged in 2017 to donate $49million to support the children’s hospital
The dispute is centered over the construction of a ‘new tower’ on the hospital site.
Mattel insists that their money was specifically pledged for the construction of a new tower at the hospital.
And they say since plans for the tower have been ‘unilaterally abandoned’ this means ‘the conditions for the pledge under the 2017 Agreement have not been met’ and they are not required to donate the money.
But in the new lawsuit, UCLA says these claims are baseless, and are just an excuse so that Mattel can back out of the deal.
The toymaker and the pediatric hospital have worked together for decades.
In 1998, Mattel pledged $25million to the UCLA Foundation to support the construction of a new hospital on the Westwood Campus.
In exchange, UCLA named the new hospital after Mattel, calling it the ‘Mattel Children’s Hospital’.
That deal went smoothly and in 2017 Mattel pledged to donate another $49 million in cash for the next 12 years in exchange for higher visibility of the company’s logo on hospital signage.
Mattel paid the first $2million installment of the pledge in 2017.
But then in 2018, the toymaker requested to ‘temporarily suspend scheduled payments on the pledge’ due to the company’s poor financial position.
They then ‘repeatedly declined to renew the payments’ despite huge profits and revenue raked in from the Barbie movie released in July.
In October, Mattel reported profits of $146 million for the quarter and credited the Barbie film with a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in sales between July and September to $1.9bn.
That included a 27 per cent jump in doll sales, which was driven by demand for toys from its Barbie, Monster High, Disney Princess and Disney Frozen lines.
Ynon Kreiz, said at the time: ‘Consumer demand for our product increased in the quarter and we continued to outpace the industry. Our results benefited from the success of the Barbie movie, which became a global cultural phenomenon, and marked a key milestone for Mattel.’
He added: ‘We are very well positioned competitively and expect to gain market share in the fourth quarter and full year.’
Despite strong financials, Mattel told UCLA in 2021 that they were only going to donate $10million of the $46illion and that $2.5million of that would be given in the form of toys.
UCLA claims that the decision to back out of the pledge has caused ‘significant financial injury’ to the children’s hospital.
Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said in October that the company is ‘very well positioned’ financially
The Barbie film was credited with giving Mattel a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in sales between July and September to $1.9bn
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a UCLA spokesperson said: ‘We are hopeful that an alternative resolution can be found through dialogue grounded in respect for a relationship of more than 25 years and in pursuit of a shared interest: the care and well-being of children.
‘As this legal matter proceeds, we remain steadfastly focused on providing high-quality care to pediatric patients, many of whom have cancer, rare diseases and physical trauma requiring complex and expert care.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Mattel said: ‘Mattel deeply values its longstanding relationship with UCLA Health and we are proud that UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital (UMCH) bears our company’s name.
‘Our $25M endowment of the hospital in 1998 was the single largest gift made to any U.S. children’s hospital by a corporation or corporate foundation at the time.
‘In 2017, Mattel and UCLA Health entered into a separate pledge agreement specifically for the construction of a new hospital tower. Our agreement expressly allocates funds for the new tower and provides that funding cannot be allocated for any other purpose by either party alone.
‘UCLA Health has unilaterally abandoned its plans for the construction of its new hospital tower. As a result, the conditions for the pledge under the 2017 Agreement have not been met.’