Nickelodeon, which is owned by New York-based media giant Viacom Inc., shut down its Red Rocket retail toy site in May after it struggled to keep pace with larger rivals like eToys and Toysrus.com.

Under the deal expected to be announced Tuesday, Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based Toysrus.com will acquire Red Rocket's inventory. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Starting this fall, Toysrus.com will put a Nickelodeon boutique on its site, which will carry toys, video games and CD-ROMs tied to Nickelodeon's popular animated series including Rugrats, Blue's Clues and Wild Thornberrys.

The boutique will link to Nick.com, Nickelodeon's primary Web site which attracts more than 500,000 visitors each month. Consumers can also link right to Toysrus.com from Nick.com.

The deal comes amid turmoil in the online toy marketplace, with intense competition forcing a number of Web toy stores to close, including Toysmart.com and ToyTime.com, in recent weeks.

For Nickelodeon, the agreement takes it out of the retail business, which many online companies have learned is tough to master.

Toysrus.com, a unit of the giant retail chain Toys R Us, has expanded its business greatly over the last year and now is running head-to-head with eToys in the race to be the most visited online toy store.

In recent weeks, Toysrus.com has said it plans to double its staff and open new offices in San Francisco and Fort Lee, N.J.

[Posted 6/13/2000]