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Mattel No. 2 executive out
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March 24, 2000: 3:09 p.m. ET
Mansour announces departure in staff memo, leaving top two positions vacant
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Mattel Inc. President Ned Mansour has told the toy maker's staff that he will leave his post at the end of March after 21 years with the company.
Mansour's departure from the world's largest toy maker marks the latest in a series of top executive resignations in the wake of waning financial performance -- particularly at The Learning Company software unit that was acquired by El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel last year.
In the memo, which went out Thursday, Mansour said he planned to take time off with his family and thanked employees for their hard work.
"Over my 21-year career at Mattel, you have been brothers and sisters to me, in the good times as well as bad," Mansour told the staff. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that any measure of success that I achieved was in great part attributable to my fellow employees..."
Mansour also said he would remain available as a consultant.
"I have complete confidence that, with all of your efforts, Mattel's future will be very bright," Mansour said.
The announcement did little to affect Mattel (MAT: Research, Estimates) shares, which were unchanged at 10-1/2 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday.
In a separate memo, acting Chief Executive Officer Ron Loeb said Mansour brought "vast knowledge" to the projects he worked on, and that he possesses "a unique sense of camaraderie."
"...He has a reputation as not only a man of great talent and insight, but as someone deeply committed to both the organization and its employees," Loeb said in the memo.
Mansour will stay on as a consultant to the company, the memo said.
Mattel spokesman Glenn Bozarth said the decision to leave was Mansour's, and that his resignation would not have a negative impact on the company.
Marina Jacobson, an analyst with Bear Stearns, said Mansour's move signals a changing of the guard at Mattel in an effort to boost its faltering stock and improve earnings.
"I think things can, under the right leadership, move up and improve. But it really depends on who comes in," Jacobson said.
In February, Mattel's board ousted CEO Jill Barad after her $3.5 billion acquisition of The Learning Company -- an effort to bolster Mattel's interactive product line -- led to a series of disappointing results for the toy maker.
Mattel lost $82.4 million, or 21 cents per diluted share in fiscal 1999, compared with $206 million, or 47 cents a share, the year before. Revenue fell to $5.5 billion from $5.6 billion in 1998.
Bozarth said the company was continuing its search for a replacement.
The computer software firm cost Mattel $105 million in third-quarter losses last year, and caused the stock price to plummet to about $10 from a high of $30.
Chief Financial Officer Harry Pearce also left in February and has been replaced by former controller Kevin Farr. Last year, the two founders of The Learning Company, Kevin O'Leary and Michael Perrik, departed.
Earlier this month, Mattel announced that it expected to incur a first-quarter expense of $50 million as compensation for departing executives. 
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