Genius Products Inc. was founded in San Diego, Californiain 1999. created by Klaus Moeller and Larry Balaban. In 2001, the video release of Baby Genius: The Four Seasons won a Kids First! award, beating Teletubbies. By 2002, AOL Time Warner was distributing Baby Genius products. Genius Products acquired American Vantage Media in early 2005. On December 5, 2005, Genius Products, Inc. announced a distribution joint venture with The Weinstein Company called Genius Products, LLC, with Weinstein holding a 70% stake. GPL would hold the Wellspring film library, including the Fox Lorber, Winstar and American Vantage Media titles, and the bulk of GPI's assets. Weinstein Co. added distribution rights for its products combined with no cash and received a 50% cut in the distribution fee on their films. The high-profile with Weinstein helped Genius Products to open the doors to major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target. With major retailers available to Genius, other entertainment companies including ESPN and Robert Halmi Inc. had signed with them. Under Weinstein's order, the Wellspring Home Entertainment division was moved to Santa Monica, California at the end of April, dropping most of the previous staff and closing its theatrical distribution unit, while transferring theatrical distribution to TWC. TWC also arranged for direct-to-video funding from Blockbuster in exchange for exclusive rental rights. Expecting the indistinguishable dozen films to be made under the multi-year deal would generate regular income of $1 to $2 million. In January 2006, Pacific Entertainment, formed by Moeller and Balaban, purchased Baby Genius and other lines from Genius Products, Inc. for $3 million. The other lines were preschool brands such as Wee Worship and the Little Tikes music and DVD series. Genius Products retained exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the lines. In January and February 2007, Genius Products and The Weinstein Co. signed distribution and co-production agreements with Entertainment Rights, Classic Media and Sesame Workshop after Sesame Workshop and Classic Media's deals with Sony Wonder ended. Genius would distribute Sesame Workshop and ER/Classic Media's shows, while Weinstein Co. would work with Sesame and ER/Classic Media on current properties and for future development. At this time, Steve Bannon was the chairman of the board at Genius. In 2009, investment firm Quadrant Management affiliate, GNPR Investments, acquired 60% of Genius Products, LLC, with TWC retaining 15% and Genius Products, Inc. holding 25%. Later that year, Genius' home video distribution rights were acquired by Vivendi Entertainment, while distribution rights to Sesame Workshop were sold to Warner Home Video. In 2011, GPL was pushed into involuntary bankruptcy over $8.5 million in debt by World Wrestling Entertainment and two other companies.
