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Mattel

Links

Evening links — October 6, 2026

by LizDiscuss

A Lego claim exposes a bigger insurance-fraud bill <The Guardian>
A fake theft claim for collectible Lego helped expose one fraudster; insurers say they detected £1.34 billion in bogus UK claims last year, up 14% even as the number of cases fell.

Lambda’s $50 billion backlog has a $35 billion catch <TechCrunch>
Lambda is seeking up to $4 billion before a planned IPO, TechCrunch reports citing the Wall Street Journal; $35 billion of its $50 billion order backlog comes from Anthropic, leaving its debt-funded expansion heavily exposed to one customer.

Mattel gets another invitation to sell itself <Retail Dive>
A second major investor wants Mattel to consider a sale or breakup; quarterly sales rose 10%, but the Barbie maker swung to an $18 million loss, and the activist says progress has stalled.

Hy-Vee puts its dollar-store experiment back in the box <Grocery Dive>
Hy-Vee is rebranding its remaining Dollar Fresh stores after finding that its 96-year-old supermarket name resonates better than the discount spin-off.

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Layoffs

More layoffs at Barbie HQ

by LewDiscuss

Barbie’s house just shrank. Toymaker Mattel is chopping 89 marketing and design jobs at its El Segundo headquarters, starting January 12, 2026, as it carves up its global brands team into a new “brand-centric” structure that’s supposed to save $200 million by 2026. This round is on top of the 120 shed last March. The toymaker says it’s about strategy and efficiency; for the staff laid off, it’s just another round of corporate make-believe where the brands live on and the people get boxed up and sent home.

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