Mattel, MGA to play nice?

That's what a federal judge in Riverside wants from the two locally based toy companies. A Riverside jury found that MGA was culpable for purchasing Bratz sketches from a designer then working for Mattel, but the damages portion of the case was never resolved very neatly. Depending on who you're talking to, the jury award was anywhere from $10 million to $100 million. In a Sept. 2nd order reported last night by Reuters, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson stayed the case until a week from Friday so that the toymakers can try to work out a deal between themselves. Given that Mattel had initially asked for nearly $2 billion, the prospects of a settlement don't seem all that great. But who knows? Meanwhile, Wall Street has pretty much discounted the chances that any eventual payout will significantly contribute to Mattel's financial results. It's looking like this could be much ado about not all that much.