4Kids' Al Kahn Retires
After 25 years with the company (long before most people had even heard of them), 4Kids Entertainment CEO Al Kahn has resigned & will be retiring. The most likely reason for Kahn's departure is 4Kids continuing to do worse & worse every quarter for several years now. Most recently 4Kids lost another $10 million & were forced to abandon their Chaotic franchise which they had put a lot of hope & faith into being a success. The board must have felt it necessary that if the company had any chance of surviving, a change in leadership was required.
Kahn was responsible for the company's success in the field of licensing anime, having been in charge when they brought over Pokemon to the US. That move landed the company on the map, along with follow-up successes such as Yu-Gi-Oh & Sonic X. But there plenty of flops as well as they tried to find the next big thing, & eventually Kahn thought it was best to turn his back on Japanese entertainment in favor of original programming, saying such things as "Japan is over… anime was tired… in the doldrums, and too derivative." But when that plan backfired as well, Kahn did a 360 & announced 4Kids were returning their focus back to anime. Too little too late, one figures.
For those who might feel bad for Kahn, I wouldn't worry about him too much. 4Kids has agreed to pay him $250,000 monthly for the next six months, along with "certain other benefits." Yes sir, I think Kahn will do just fine on his own.
Press Release: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2011-01-11/4kids-entertainment-chairman-and-ceo-alfred-r-kahn-retires