Mattel 2008 Annual Report Download - page 16

March 2004. From August 2000 to May 2001, he served as Vice President and Treasurer of Premier Practice
Management, Inc. From June 1999 to August 2000, he served as Division Vice President of Dataworks, Inc., a
specialized publishing company. Prior to that, he spent eight years with Total Petroleum (North America) Ltd.,
most recently as Vice President of Human Resources.
Available Information
Mattel files its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on
Form 8-K, Proxy Statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or
15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) with the SEC. The public may read and copy
any materials that Mattel files with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE,
Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by
calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and
other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
Mattel’s Internet website address is http://www.mattel.com. Mattel makes available on its Internet website,
free of charge, its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K,
Proxy Statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the
Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with, or furnished to,
the SEC.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Factors That May Affect Future Results
(Cautionary Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995)
Mattel is including this Cautionary Statement to make applicable and take advantage of the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”) for forward-looking statements.
This Annual Report on Form 10-K includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. Forward-
looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They
often include words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” “plans,” “seeks” or
words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs, such as “will,” “should,” “could,” “may,” “aims,”
“intends,” or “projects.” A forward-looking statement is neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or
circumstances, and those future events or circumstances may not occur. Investors should not place undue reliance
on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this Form 10-K. These forward-looking
statements are all based on currently available operating, financial, economic and competitive information and
are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual future results and trends may differ
materially depending on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties discussed
below.
If the current global economic conditions and financial crisis continue to deteriorate, Mattel’s business and
financial results may continue to be adversely affected.
The recent global economic conditions and financial crisis adversely impacted Mattel’s business and
financial results in 2008. Mattel designs, manufactures, and markets a wide variety of toy products worldwide
through sales to customers and directly to consumers. Our performance is impacted by the level of discretionary
consumer spending, which has deteriorated sharply in the United States and in many countries around the world
in which Mattel does business. Consumers’ discretionary purchases of toy products may be impacted by job
losses, foreclosures, bankruptcies, reduced access to credit, significantly falling home prices, lower consumer
confidence and other macroeconomic factors that affect consumer spending behavior. If our customers encounter
liquidity problems due to weak retail sales or their inability to raise sufficient capital due to credit constraints, we
may not be able to collect the accounts receivable from the affected customers. Finally, many of the effects and
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