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Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) is an American toy company and is the largest toy company based on revenue. It produces products including Hot Wheels & Matchbox cars, Barbie dolls, board games, and in the early 1980s, video game consoles. It was founded in 1945 by Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler (hence the name "matt-el"). Handler's wife Ruth Handler would later become president, and is credited with establishing the Barbie product line for the company in 1959. Today the Barbie line is responsible for over 80% of Mattel's profits.

The company originally produced picture frames and dollhouse accessories from picture frame scraps. With the success of their dollhouse accessories, the company turned its attention to toys. The company became publicly owned in 1960.

Mattel was the original sponsor of Matty's Funday Funnies from 1959-1962.

Throughout the 1960's Mattel diversified its lineup by purchasing smaller toy companies that produced unrelated toy product lines. In 1966 Mattel purchased a small manufacturer of low-quality plastic lunchboxes. Mattel began exploring ideas for using this company's processes to make new products out of formed plastic. An employee noted that Matchbox was producing a line of die-cast cars, but that these cars' wheels didn't roll well. Mattel created a competing line of small toy cars using superior bearings that enabled the new cars to roll further. They paired this advantage with formed plastic technology from the acquired company that allowed Mattel to develop innovative chassis that excited their target market, boys. This resulted in the very successful Hot Wheels line.

An independent audit of Mattel, released on November 3, 1975, revealed that company officials had fabricated press releases and financial information to "maintain the appearance of continued corporate growth." In 1999, the ill-advised purchase of a major software publisher, TLC, for $3.6 billion dollars led to the CEO, Jill Barad, being ousted (See Broderbund.)

In 1987 Mattel distributed the NES in Europe, as Nintendo at that time did not have a European office. The early European versions of the NES were called the Mattel Version, while later versions distributed by Nintendo were called the NES Version. The only difference between the two was "Mattel" or "NES" branding under Nintendo Entertainment System plaque on the face of the console.

Between 1986 and 1990, Mattel was also responsible for marketing NES products in Canada, producing bilingual packages and co-branding them. However, many gray market American packages were also sold in Canada, resulting in Mattel taking Nintendo to court. Nintendo eventually took over sole distribution of for North America.

In 1993, Mattel merged with the Fisher-Price toy company. In 1996, Mattel purchased Tyco Toys, which was the third largest toy manufacturer at the time.

In 2006, Mattel purchased Radica USA, an electronic toy manufacturer.

Mattel serves as the parent company for American Girl (formerly Pleasant Company), Radica USA, and Fisher-Price. Currently, it is headquartered in El Segundo, California.