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Baby Einstein is a line of multimedia products and toys that specialize in interactive activities for preschoolers below 4 years of age. These products are currently made by a division of Kids II, Inc.. The videos have been described as "crack for babies", but research shows that they do not necessarily increase youngsters' vocabularies, which led Disney to offer refunds to parents whose children did not improve. ==History== The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1997 by former teacher and stay-at-home mom Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in suburban Alpharetta, Georgia, as I Think I Can Productions.〔http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO0eqXc1ous〕 Aigner-Clark and her husband invested $18,000 of their savings to produce the initial product, a VHS they named ''Baby Einstein'' and later sold as ''Language Nursery''. The original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music, stories, numbers, and words of many languages. Eventually, the video was marketed across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Other videos followed, some featuring the Clarks' two daughters, as well as other children. All videos feature toys by Ambi, Brio, Folkmanis, Dakin, Chimes, Battat, Tomy, Legends, and Lore, among others. It became a multimillion-dollar franchise; its revenue grew from $1 million in 1998 to $25 million in 2001. In January 1998 Aigner-Clark renamed the company the Baby Einstein Company, and in February 2000 sold a 20% stake in the company to Artisan Entertainment and Family Home Entertainment, while selling the rest to The Walt Disney Company in November 2001. As a Disney subsidiary, production budgets increased and the concept was expanded; it also developed a line of educational toys. In 2005, it inspired a Playhouse Disney animated television series called ''Little Einsteins''. Named after Albert Einstein, the company had to pay substantial royalties to Corbis, which compensates the Einstein estate, making him one of the top five earning dead celebrities. In 2009, the brand was estimated to be nearly $400 million based on revenues. Julie was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" and won various awards, and one in three U.S. households with babies were found to own at least one Baby Einstein product. It received positive media and Aigner-Clark appeared on the ''Oprah Winfrey Show'', ''Good Morning America'', ''The Today Show'', and ''USA Today'', among others. President George W. Bush mentioned the Baby Einstein Company in his 2007 State of the Union address, which Aigner-Clark was invited to attend. The final ''Baby Einstein'' video, called "World Animal Adventure", was released on September 29, 2009. ''Little Einsteins'' stopped production on December 22, 2009. The Walt Disney Company sold Baby Einstein to Kids II, Inc. in October 2013. Julie Aigner-Clark no longer owns or operates the company but has been involved in other startups including The Safe Side, JoyBox, and the Soft Skin Company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baby Einstein」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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