Hello Kitty is having a midlife crisis.
Sanrio Co., the owner of the 39-year-old white cat character with no mouth and a red bow on her ear, has made a fortune licensing its brand to other companies, letting them bear the risks of making and selling the goods. Now it is shifting strategy to sell more of its own merchandise, prompting the biggest stock drop in 19 years and wiping almost $450 million off its market value Thursday.
"If you do it yourself and start advertising and opening up stores, you could lose a lot of money," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo. "If you're licensing, you don't take any risks. It's been a great short-cut to growth."