Can't Wait to See the Next Chapter in the Unfolding Mattel Saga
Thursday Thwack
Mattel's mess: About a month ago Mattel (MAT) disclosed earnings trouble related to its The Learning Company sub. A few weeks later it said everything was OK. Then, on Wednesday, it announced that the two guys who ran TLC, Michael Perik and Kevin O'Leary, had "left." Left! Nothing more, nothing less. What really happened? A company spokesman was mum, but this much is certain: It's generally never a good sign when top execs abruptly leave after bad news with no explanation. Suggests some skeletons popped out of some closet. Or maybe a bunch of unsold software that nobody ever knew existed? Expect this to be just the start of yet another chapter in this saga. School daze: Edison Schools, which is scheduled to go public as early as this week, was the focus of a blistering (albeit entertaining) column on TheStreet.com several months ago by Chris Byron, who focused on the company's IPO prospectus -- specifically, pay for CEO Chris Whittle and other execs. But wait -- there's more: Here's a company supposedly in the biz of running public schools, but rather than relying on tried-and-true math to count the number of schools it operates, it has come up with a new math of its own. Rather than counting each facility as a school, as is common in education, Edison discloses that it counts each grouping of kindergarten through fifth grade, sixth grade through eighth grade and ninth grade through 12th grade as a separate school, even if those groupings are in the same building. Even if there's just one grade in each group, that counts as a separate school.TheStreet Premium Services For Personal Service: 877-471-2967
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