American Greetings

American Greetings Corporation, LLC

Formerly called	Sapirstein Greeting Card Company
Type	Private
Industry	Greeting card
Founded	Brooklyn, Ohio, United States (1906 (1906))
Founder	Jacob Sapirstein
Headquarters	Westlake, Ohio, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Morry Weiss (Chairman) Zev Weiss (Co-CEO) Jeffrey M. Weiss (Co-CEO) John W. Beeder (President and COO) Erwin Weiss (Senior Vice President) Gregory M. Steinberg (CFO)
Products	Greeting cards Gift wrap Party goods Giftware Stationery Electronic greetings Calendars Educational products
Brands	Carlton Tender Thoughts Just For You Gibson Care Bears The Get Along Gang Popples Holly Hobbie
Owner	Weiss Family
Number of employees	27,500 (2012)
Subsidiaries	Carlton Cards Those Characters from Cleveland Clintons
Website	ag.com

American Greetings Corporation, LLC is the world’s largest greeting card company. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such as wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic expressive content (e.g., ringtones and images for cell phones). In addition, the company owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts, Just For You, and Gibson brands.

American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland (now American Greetings Properties), includes copyrighted properties such as Care Bears, Topsy and Tim, The Get Along Gang, Popples and Holly Hobbie. American Greetings also holds an exclusive license for Nickelodeon characters.

Founded in 1906 by Polish immigrant Jacob Sapirstein (1885–1987), who sold cards from a horse-drawn cart, American Greetings has been run by members of the family since its inception. Irving I. Stone (Sapirstein's oldest son, who changed his surname to Stone) was stuffing envelopes at age five, handling the business during his father's illness when he was nine, and worked for the company full-time upon leaving high school. He was succeeded as CEO by his son-in-law Morry Weiss in 1987, and Stone took the title "Founder-Chairman" previously held by his father, when Weiss became chairman in 1992, before dying in 2000. In 1993, American Greetings began sponsoring the Entertainment Tonight Birthdays, also in that same year, the company also introduced its new corporate mascot, the Birthday Bear, AG remained sponsor until 2000, when competitor Hallmark Cards assumed sponsorship.

In 1999, the company bought rival Gibson Greetings and united the second and third largest U.S. greeting card makers.