| abstract | - Racing Champions was founded in 1989 and pursued a vigorous acquisition strategy in the subsequent fifteen years, going public with stock issues in 1997. The company's name was changed to Racing Champions/Ertl in 1999 when it bought AMT/Ertl, in the process splitting the company back into its original components. This rapid expansion resulted in a cumbersome collection of companies with subsidiaries creating unrelated product lines so a reorganization of Racing Champions/Ertl was initiated in 2003. Renamed RC2 Corporation in 2004, the company opted to refocus onto its original product lines of die-cast toys and models, and, after it bought "Learning Curve International, Inc." (2003) and "The First Years Inc." (2004), on toys and learning material for the very young. Ertl was dropped from the company name and was relegated for exclusive use as a subsidiary brand. Product lines that did not fit the new company profile were liquidated or sold, which included a number of model kits carried by AMT and Polar Lights. A vigorous acquirer of companies, the RC2 Corporation was itself acquired by Tomy in 2011. [1]
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