Genius Brands International Issues Letter to Shareholders

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BEVERLY HILLS, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 11/08/16 -- Genius Brands International, Inc. (OTCQB: GNUS)(OTCQB: GNUSD) a global brand management company that creates and licenses multimedia content, issued a letter today from Chairman & CEO Andy Heyward to its shareholders discussing recent Company events and highlights:

On the eve of our national election, I am reminded that we have a very special business. We make cartoons and we license consumer products for children, based on our cartoons. Our business is not affected by which candidate wins. Our business is not affected by whether there are Democrats or Republicans in Congress. Though our product is both evergreen and international, it is not affected by the price of oil, or gold, or by global politics.

The success of our business is determined by the quality of our entertainment and whether kids embrace it or not. We are affected by the power of our marketing, our content distribution systems, and the licensees and retailers which choose to manufacture and bring our products to market.

As Tom and Jerry, which was first made in 1939, and like the many cartoons we are making today, a successful cartoon will be an income generating asset continuing to 'pump oil' for one decade after another, after another.

Today we announced a 1 for 3 stock split in preparation of our anticipated move from the OTC exchange to NASDAQ. We chose our time to make our NASDAQ application thoughtfully, because of strong commerce and events of value creation occurring now in Genius Brands, and we have much good news to share associated with the reverse stock split and the planned move now to a national exchange.

Why is this important?

We believe having our stock listed on NASDAQ will bring many benefits to the Company and its shareholders, including broadening the appeal of our shares to institutional investors, thus increasing exposure of our shares and brand identity, as well as being on a bigger stage from which to unlock value for our shareholders.

  • Our Kid Genius Cartoon Channel has recently doubled its coverage to over 40 million U.S. television households and has garnered the attention of the largest kid's media buyer in America, Beacon Media, which recognizes it as an option for advertisers alongside Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel.
  • Our SpacePOP product line of diverse products, including dolls, electronics, publishing, apparel, beauty, confections, original music and videos from Sony Music and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, hits stores nationwide on December 1st in Toys"R"Us, Kohl's, Claire's and elsewhere.
  • We have teamed up with YouTube to distribute over 100 three-minute music based webisodes of SpacePOP, and the first 30 already released have garnered over 10 million views, thus tracking ahead of both our competitor benchmarks, Monster High from Mattel and My Little Pony Equestria Girls from Hasbro…both billion dollar brands.
  • Stone Newman, our President of Worldwide Consumer Products, Content Sales & Marketing, returned last week from the MIPCOM global TV and media market in Cannes where his team secured numerous sales in major territories for not just new offerings like SpacePOP, but also catalogue product such as Thomas Edison's Secret Lab and Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club.
  • We are deep in production of Llama Llama, our series for Netflix, with Jennifer Garner playing the role of Mama Llama, and our broad consumer products program for it, which will appear on TV and in the retail marketplace in 2017.

Over the coming days, we will be sharing these events and more.

As we now grow, a national exchange will provide us with the platform we need for our rapidly growing business.

Today, I launch a ten-city road show to meet with a broad array of institutional investors to introduce them to Genius Brands and to tell our story.

It's an exciting story, which we have been patiently nourishing for the last three years, as we develop, produce and license our programs, which are now coming to the marketplace.

In the Secret Millionaires Club, Warren Buffett says, 'Someone is sitting in the shade today, because long ago, someone planted a tree."

At Genius Brands, we started planting our trees almost three years ago, and now they are beginning to make some shade.

Andy Heyward

Chairman & CEO

Genius Brands International, Inc.

About Genius Brands International
Headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Genius Brands International, Inc. (OTCQB: GNUS)(OTCQB: GNUSD) is a publicly traded global brand management company that creates and licenses positive value multimedia content for children. Led by award-winning creators and producers, the Company distributes its content worldwide in all formats, as well as a broad range of consumer products based on its characters. In the children's media sector, the Company's portfolio features "content with a purpose" for toddlers to tweens, which provides enrichment as well as entertainment, including new preschool property Rainbow Rangers; tween music-driven brand SpacePOP; preschool property debuting on Netflix Llama Llama; award-winning Baby Genius, re-launched with new entertainment and over 40 new products; adventure comedy Thomas Edison's Secret Lab®, available on Netflix, public broadcast stations and Genius's Kid Genius channel on Comcast's Xfinity on Demand; Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club, created with and starring iconic investor Warren Buffett. The Company is also co-producing an all-new adult animated series, Stan Lee'sCosmic Crusaders, with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment and The Hollywood Reporter. Additionally under Genius Brands' wholly owned subsidiary, A Squared Entertainment, the Company represents third-party properties, including From Frank, a humor greeting card and product line, and Celessence Technologies,the world's leading micro encapsulation company, across a broad range of categories in territories around the world. For additional information please visit www.gnusbrands.com.

Forward Looking Statements:
Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, under the heading "Risk Factors," and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), not limited to risk factors relating to its patent business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Michelle Orsi/Carol Holdsworth
Three.Sixty Marketing & Communications
310-418-6430
Email contact


INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Robert Haag
IRTH Communications
1-866-976-4784
Email contact

Source: Genius Brands International, Inc.

Released November 8, 2016