Hallmark Inc

Hallmark Will Acquire Model Maker: The Kansas City-based greeting card firm said it agreed to acquire Revell-Monogram, maker of Matchbox toy trucks and cars, for $85 million. Hallmark Inc. said the deal includes the acquisition of Revell's stock for $6.375 a share, the assumption of debt and the acquisition of minority interests.

James Taylor to Hallmark Cards Inc.: You've got a friend. In the latest example of the slipping grip of traditional music retailers, the Grammy-winning singer released "James Taylor: A Christmas Album" exclusively through the gift-shop company's more than 4,000 Gold Crown stores. Those shops have been selling the CD, Taylor's first-ever compilation of holiday classics, since Nov. 1. Priced at $10.95 (or $6.

James Taylor to Hallmark Cards Inc.: You've got a friend. In the latest example of the slipping grip of traditional music retailers, the Grammy-winning singer released "James Taylor: A Christmas Album" exclusively through the gift-shop company's more than 4,000 Gold Crown stores. Those shops have been selling the CD, Taylor's first-ever compilation of holiday classics, since Nov. 1. Priced at $10.95 (or $6.

Hallmark Will Acquire Model Maker: The Kansas City-based greeting card firm said it agreed to acquire Revell-Monogram, maker of Matchbox toy trucks and cars, for $85 million. Hallmark Inc. said the deal includes the acquisition of Revell's stock for $6.375 a share, the assumption of debt and the acquisition of minority interests.

Most Popular Holiday Cards Estimated number to be sent in 2011: Christmas: 1.5 billion (including boxed and individual cards) Valentine's Day: 144 million (not including classroom valentines) Mother's Day: 133 million Father's Day: 94 million Easter: 57 million Halloween: 20 million Thanksgiving: 10 million St. Patrick's Day: 8 million Source: Hallmark Cards Inc.

Los Angeles-based Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group, a member of the Sears Financial Network, has acquired the real estate brokerage operations of Reese Associates Inc. and Lang Associates Inc. and has signed an agreement to acquire Hallmark Properties Inc. All three companies are located in Fairfield County, Conn.

The UCLA Film, Television and Radio Archives has received a $30,800 grant from Hallmark Cards Inc. to support the restoration and preservation of the Hallmark Hall of Fame collection at the archives. The collection includes 147 television films presented as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame dramatic series since 1951.

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.

A two-year-old La Jolla office building occupied by a single tenant, Hallmark Circuits Inc., has been sold by W.F.B., a San Diego general partnership, to Eastgate Associates, another general partnership, for $4,425,000, according to John Burnham & Co. Commercial Brokerage Division, which handled the transaction in cooperation with Coldwell Banker.

The little-known Odyssey cable network will change its name to the Hallmark Channel and shuffle its programming to slightly reduce its religious fare, executives said Wednesday. The new Hallmark Channel will start Aug. 6. Odyssey, formed in 1990 largely as a religious network, already shows reruns of old Hallmark-produced movies, as well as series such as "Happy Days" and "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." The basic cable channel is available in nearly 30 million homes. Hallmark Inc.