Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards Inc. is acquiring Willitts Design of Petaluma, Calif., which designs and markets collectible gifts, for an undisclosed sum. Willitts' products, marketed under the Willitts Designs and Willitts Galleries trademarks, include music boxes, snow globes, porcelain figurines, kaleidoscopes, ceramic mugs, banks and plates.

Hallmark Channels, reeling over the lackluster ratings of its recently launched Martha Stewart programming block, forced out a key executive who had been hired just four months ago to work closely with the lifestyle maven. Laura Sillars, a former HGTV programming executive, joined Hallmark in June as senior vice president for lifestyle programming. On Friday, her tenure with the Studio City company ended abruptly. "We mutually decided to go in different ways," said Bill Abbott, chief executive of Hallmark Channels.

Hallmark Cards Inc. agreed to buy British rival Creative Publishing for $306 million in cash in a deal that would create Britain's biggest greeting card group with nearly 30% of the market. Executives at Hallmark and Creative Publishing said they anticipated no regulatory problems with the merger, because there is little overlap in their businesses and the British greeting card industry will remain highly competitive. They also said no layoffs are planned.

Martha Stewart has a knack for transforming dated rooms into design showpieces. Now she's undertaking another major renovation: the Hallmark Channel. Beginning Monday, Stewart will provide eight hours of programming each weekday as part of an ambitious revamp of the Hallmark Channel. After pinning its fortunes on the broad appeal of sentimental made-for-TV movies and reruns of such classic shows as "The Golden Girls" and "Little House on the Prairie," Hallmark plans to focus on home and lifestyle improvement and cooking shows.

Hallmark Cards today agreed to replace a line of greeting cards that had been challenged in a lawsuit by Blue Mountain Arts, a tiny Colorado card company that had accused Hallmark of copying its card design. The consent decree filed in Denver U.S. District Court ends the legal dispute between the two companies that began when Blue Mountain Arts of Boulder filed a $50-million lawsuit in July, 1986, against Hallmark. The card war had been scheduled to go to trial Jan. 2 in federal court here.

Hallmark Cards, which stirred controversy when it became the nation's largest Spanish-language broadcaster four years ago, said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement to sell its nine TV stations and Univision TV network to a group led by investor A. Jerrold Perenchio for $550 million. The sale would signal a dramatic upheaval in the Spanish-language TV market, as Univision likely would be merged with one of its top competitors, the Galavision network.

For the first time, Hallmark is offering a card for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, expected to fall on Nov. 24-25 this year. The holiday is observed on the first day of the month that follows the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day. It celebrates and gives thanks for the Koran.

Hallmark to Reduce Number of Card Machines: The Kansas City, Mo.-based greeting card company said it will remove 1,500 of its 2,700 Touch-Screen Greetings kiosks by early next year. Hallmark Cards Inc. also said that starting Aug. 1, it will lower the price of its kiosk cards to $2.95 from $3.50. Hallmark's actions could be a sign that computerized greeting cards have not caught on.

About 2.5 million AT&T U-verse television service customers lost their access to the Hallmark channels Wednesday, the latest dispute in a high-stakes scrimmage between TV programmers and the cable, satellite and telephone companies that carry their signals. The two Hallmark channels, which concentrate on family programming, went dark on AT&T's system at 9:01 p.m. Tuesday after AT&T and Crown Media Holdings Inc. of Studio City failed to reach a new carriage agreement. The blackout occurred less than two weeks before the launch of Hallmark's high-profile programming makeover starring lifestyle maven Martha Stewart.

Know what I like? Ice dancing -- the elegance, the artistry, the physical contact. I used to express myself by cursing politicians on TV or swearing at other drivers. Now, ice dancing has come into my life. Ice dancing is the sort of sport Barry Manilow might've invented. It belongs in Las Vegas, except it would all probably melt. Then it would be water dancing, which doesn't sound so bad. Just imagine what NBC would do with a "skin cam." Right away you're probably thinking, "Oh, this dude's writing about ice dancing, he's going to make fun of it."

Dead rats and voodoo threats replace a newcomer's gift basket at a Brooklyn apartment complex. A little old lady, dressed like Strawberry Shortcake, finds solace with her dolls and cats. Sinister scents and a nervous neighbor make one man wonder what might really be happening on the other side of his shared wall. These are all snippets of private lives, witnessed through open curtains or over backyard fences. They are also the riveting real-life material documented in an online comic-book project called "Next-Door Neighbor."

Hallmark Cards Inc. is cutting as many as 750 jobs, or 8% of its U.S. workforce, as the nation's largest greeting cards maker struggles with falling sales. The Kansas City, Mo., company told employees that it would make the cuts over the next six months. Hallmark's total U.S. workforce, excluding subsidiaries such as Crayola of Easton, Pa., is around 9,200. The bulk of the cuts are coming from manufacturing and distribution. About 200 to 250 jobs will be cut from Hallmark's headquarters.

Much of the pulp TV programming that RHI Entertainment Inc. churns out is a lampooner's dream. "Killer Wave." "Blood Monkey." "Black Swarm." You get the picture. That didn't stop investors from handing the New York-based production company $189 million in its initial public stock offering on Wednesday. But by the end of the stock's first session of trading, the people who bought in may have been feeling like one of the hapless victims in RHI's horror fare: "What was I thinking opening that door?"

No Emmy for this deal: TV-miniseries kingpin RHI Entertainment Inc. priced its initial public stock offering late Tuesday at $14 a share, below the $16-to-$18 range the company had hoped to get. RHI, based in New York, is the production house of the Halmi family -- legendary producer Robert Halmi Sr. and son Robert Jr. RHI was a public firm in the early 1990s until it was bought out by Hallmark Cards in 1994. The Halmis stayed on board under Hallmark's wing, producing a slew of content for the Hallmark Channel and for other outlets.

Hallmark to Shed Cable Unit: The company agreed to sell its Crown Media cable television operation for $900 million. In announcing the deal, Hallmark Cards Inc. said it will concentrate on developing TV programs rather than delivering them. Dallas-based Crown Media will be sold to Charter Communications of St. Louis and Marcus Cable of Dallas. Under the deal, Charter will acquire 630,000 Crown Media cable customers in five states, including Missouri.

Turns out love may actually be a universal language. The world's largest greeting card maker, Hallmark Cards Inc., has for the first time analyzed individual cities' data for top-selling Valentines, and it yielded a surprising result. They were all the same -- a result of the exhaustive research Hallmark carries out before any card goes on the shelf. It's a process of analyzing sales numbers and trend hunting in search of the perfect valentine.

For the first time, Hallmark is offering a card for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, expected to fall on Nov. 24-25 this year. The holiday is observed on the first day of the month that follows the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day. It celebrates and gives thanks for the Koran.