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The company released its Leapster2 portable learning system and its Didj educational handheld game console in July 2008. Tag became LeapFrog's flagship product and was a successor to the 10-year-old LeapPad. LeapFrog discontinued the LeapPad and released its Tag Reading System in June 2008. Kalinske remained vice chairman of LeapFrog. Katz was previously the founding chairman and chief executive officer of Orbitz and had served on the LeapFrog board for a year prior to becoming the chief executive officer of LeapFrog. Katz replaced Kalinske as LeapFrog chief executive officer in 2006. Wood was retained as the company's chief creative officer. Kalinske had previously served as LeapFrog's chief executive officer from the company's acquisition by Knowledge Universe in 1997 until early 2002. Tom Kalinske was appointed LeapFrog chief executive officer following Michael Wood's retirement in February 2004. LeapFrog products were sold in more than 25 countries by 2003. Sega Toys and Benesse also began producing LeapFrog toys localized for the Japanese market in 2002. Knowledge Universe retained majority control of the company following the initial public offering. In July, LeapFrog went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LF. LeapFrog co-founder Michael Wood became the company's chief executive officer in early 2002.

Going public and acquisition by VTech: 2003-present LeapFrog opened its LeapFrog Schoolhouse division, which markets LeapFrog products directly to schools, in 1999. It was the top-selling toy in the US for the years 2001-2002 and books and accessories for the device were the best selling toy in the US in 2003. The LeapPad launched in 1999 and became Leapfrog's flagship product. Explore Technologies' stylus technology was later used in LeapFrog's LeapPad, a learning tablet that sounds out words when users drag a stylus across a word in LeapPad books. Explore Technologies produced the Odyssey Globe, an interactive globe that could call out the names of countries when users touched the globe with a specially designed stylus. LeapFrog acquired Explore Technologies in August 1998. Kalinske, a former executive at Mattel, became LeapFrog chief executive officer as a result of the merger. LeapFrog subsequently merged with Knowledge Universe's Knowledge Kids division. Knowledge Universe is an education company founded by brothers Lowell Milken and Michael Milken, Larry Ellison, and Tom Kalinske. Knowledge Universe acquired a majority stake in LeapFrog in October 1997. In March of that year, the company hired Brad Crawford, who formerly worked for Little Tikes, to oversee sales and manufacturing. LeapFrog had distribution in over 10 countries and a number of major clients in the US by early 1997. Expansion and acquisition by Knowledge Universe: 1998-2002 Other retailers such as FAO Schwarz, Walmart and Target later began carrying the toy. Toys 'R' Us became the first major retailer to carry the Phonics Desk shortly before Christmas 1995. The company received $800,000 in seed funding from friends, family, and former clients of Wood. That year, Wood resigned as a partner at Cooley LLP and founded LeapFrog Enterprises with Robert Lally.

Wood began manufacturing the Phonics Desk in 1995. Wood solicited feedback on his prototype from Robert Calfee, an expert on children's reading development and a professor of education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. The prototype utilized a Texas Instruments chip that was previously used by one of Wood's clients to develop talking greeting cards. By 1994, Wood had developed the first prototype of what would become Phonics Desk, LeapFrog's first product. He began researching phonics and marketing while continuing as a partner at Cooley.

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The history of LeapFrog traces back to the late 1980s when LeapFrog co-founder Michael Wood, an attorney at Cooley LLP, had difficulties teaching his son how to read. 1.3 Going public and acquisition by VTech: 2003-present.1.2 Expansion and acquisition by Knowledge Universe: 1998-2002.