Mattel walked back pledge to donate millions to UCLA children's hospital, lawsuit claims
CBSN
Mattel, the toy company that owns huge franchises like Hot Wheels and Barbie, is facing a new lawsuit brought by UCLA and its health system, claiming the company failed to make good on a pledge to donate $49 million to the university's children's hospital.
The company had pledged and completed large donations to the UCLA children's hospital before. Mattel formed a partnership with the university in 1998 and, in exchange for the hospital bearing Mattel's name per the terms of an agreement, donated $25 million to the hospital over a period of time, according to the complaint filed Nov. 19 in Los Angeles and obtained Wednesday by CBS News.
Mattel and UCLA entered into another, similar agreement in 2017, the lawsuit says. The toy company pledged to donate $49 million to the children's hospital in installments over a 12-year period, while the hospital rebranded to add Mattel's name into its own, which since then has been called the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital.
