Tycoon, 13, sells his firm for `millions'

Saturday 06 February 1999 00:02 GMT
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A 13-YEAR-OLD boy from California has agreed to sell the toy company he founded in 1996 for several million dollars.

The Contra Costa Times reported yesterday that Richie Stachowski recently sold his company, Short Stack, to Wild Planet Toys of San Francisco.

"Richie has big dreams and he could not take the company as far as he wanted on his own." Richie's mother and business adviser Barbara said.

The sale is not expected to be formally announced until next week at the New York Toy Fair, but the Times reported that Richie stood to make "several million dollars" from the deal.

The youngster started Short Stack three years ago to manufacture an invention he called "Water Talkies". The device, which allows swimmers to communicate underwater, was a big success with major retailers. Richie subsequently invented a number of other water toys and Short Stack's six different toys will have sold more than a million units by the end of 1999, the Times said.

Now that he is selling his company, Richie plans to fulfil a promise he made to his parents when he founded it: he will put all but $350 of the proceeds from the sale into a trust fund that he will not touch until his 35th birthday. (Reuters)

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