MALIBU, Calif. -- Oct. 23, 2002 -- JAKKS Pacific, Inc. announced that it is ranked No. 99 in Forbes magazine's latest list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America. This is the third year that the Company has made the Forbes list.
Stephen Berman, president and COO of JAKKS Pacific, Inc., noted that among the factors in JAKKS Pacific's ranking were a 4% annualized growth in sales, and a 17% annualized growth in earnings-per-share, over the past five years.
"We have focused since our inception on growing JAKKS Pacific to where the Company is today, and we are extremely proud to again be recognized by Forbes magazine on their prestigious list," commented Berman.
The Forbes 200 Best Small Companies in America list includes public companies with latest 12-month sales of $5 million to $600 million. To be considered, a company must have a stock price above $5 per share and a five-year average return on equity of at least 5%. Every nominee had to earn a net margin of at least 5%, and Forbes added a new feature this year: relative stock price strength. Forbes reported that in the last twelve months, JAKKS had sales of $293 million, a 17% growth in earnings-per share, with an annualized return on equity of 13%.
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. is a multi-brand company that designs and markets a broad range of toys and leisure products. The product categories include: Action Figures, Arts & Crafts Activity Kits, Stationery, Writing Instruments, Performance Kites, Water Toys, Sports Activity Toys, Vehicles, Infant/Pre-School, Plush and Dolls. The products are sold under various brand names including Flying Colors®, Road Champs®, Remco®, Child Guidance®, Pentech®, Toymax®, Funnoodle®, Laser Challenge(TM) and Go Fly a Kite®. The Company also participates in a joint venture with THQ Inc., which has exclusive worldwide rights to publish and market World Wrestling Entertainment(TM) video games. For further information, visit www.jakkspacific.com.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual future results or events may vary materially from those described herein.
