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Back in February 2016, we posted an article about a possible merger between Hasbro and Mattel. Now, a year and a half later, the Wall Street Journal reports that sources familiar with the matter have told them that Hasbro has recently approached Mattel regarding a takeover offer. Very little else is said apart from that since any detail regarding the offer has not been divulged by these anonymous sources.

What is interesting is that whatever talks of a merger that we may have had are now evolved into a talk of a takeover which would mean that the end goal would be less about keeping both brands, ala Takara Tomy, but instead absorbing Mattel as a part of Hasbro, like what they eventually did with Kenner before. For those curious, Mattel has a market value of about $5 billion, while Hasbro is worth about $11 billion, so more than double. Hasbro's stock has since jumped slightly since the news. Below is a quote from the Wall Street Journal regarding these talks.

Hasbro Inc. has made a takeover offer for rival Mattel Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, a potential combination that would unite the two biggest U.S. toy makers and put Barbie and G.I. Joe under the same roof.

Hasbro’s approach to Mattel was made recently, one of the people said. The terms of any possible deal couldn’t be learned, and the approach may go nowhere.

To read more, you can find the article here. While you need a subscrition to read the full article, this CNBC article is free to read and is based on said Wall Street Journal article.

Let us know what you think can come of this potential takeover and what opportunities for cross branding you see.

TF Mega Bloks anyone?

Hopefully this will make Hasbro a little more money that can be put to the TF budget. Or, it'll just make Hasbro more greedy with the amount of money being generated, that or Hasbro will have more products to manufacture and keep up on.

ummmm He-Man reboot?

The first thing that comes to mind is He-man being a part of the Hasbro-Aligned-Universe.Though I would wait the release of the Justice League movie before saying that Mattel is in trouble.

Nah, if Hasbro goes after Mattel, my money on the first crossover is Transformers Hotwheels cars

It would be interesting if they get to keep the licencing deals. DC Legends and Thundercats Legends would be amazing. I keep looking at those DCU figures but I just can't bring myself to buy any of them after having seen them in reviews. They just don't really look all that good and those weird articulation points they use is a huge turn off.

I don't know how to feel about this, it could either be good or bad. If Hasbro does take over I just hope they wouldn't ruin brands like Hot wheels, as that is one of my favorite brands from Mattel. But personally I want them to stay separate.

Surely Hasbro want to buy out bandi then they don't need any toy designers & can make plastic blocks like power rangers & charge lots for them

Flashwave wrote:Nah, if Hasbro goes after Mattel, my money on the first crossover is Transformers Hotwheels cars

Lockdown transforming into a Bone Shaker would be fun.

I'll laugh my ass off at Hotwheels collectors when the stores never restock anymore. They'll lose their friggin minds. Welcome to my world guys. You see that totally empty Transformers Generations section? You see those empty pegs that have been that way all year? Better get used to it! Only Hasbro product you'll ever see restocked is Nerf.

Oh no I forgot Hasbro's distribution of product sucks, and Mattel's is pretty on point.

Oh my God, I can see it now: Master of the Universe Infinite Black Diamond Legends Series!



DOOOO WAAAAAAANT

It looks like it is back to the drawing board for any possibility of Hasbro purchasing Mattel. According to the latest from Reuters, Mattel has flat out rejected Hasbro's offer to purchase the company, which we reported on a week ago. Here a quote saying exactly why the offer was rebuffed:

Mattel has informed Hasbro its proposal undervalues the company and does not take sufficiently into account the potential for regulators to reject the deal based on antitrust concerns, the sources said.

The sources are, of course, anonymous and the details of Hasbro's offer was never disclosed.
What is interesting is that while the offer was rejected, talks of acquisition have not ceased (they haven't for a decade now) and Mattel would still be up for selling if the offer was right, according to reuters:

Mattel’s rebuttal indicates that Margaret Georgiadis, who took over as the company’s chief executive in February, is seeking to drive a hard bargain in negotiations with Hasbro, even though Mattel’s stock has significantly underperformed that of Hasbro in the last year.

Mattel's stock is expected to lower from the rise it incurred after the news of a potential purchasing agreement.

Good !!

Hasbro can sell Monopoly but not be a monopoly

Good! Hasbro doesn't need to buy another toy maker out of business anyways.

And there go our chances of an official GiJoe and Barbie crossover. Glad the offer was rejected though.

Why do I find this so funny?

REJECTED

Our governments anti-trust laws are flawed. I get that a "monopoly" has been considered a bad thing since the industrial revolution. But on the other hand, when your dealing with that kind of money, the buyers are very limited. If someone whats to sell, that should be their right. Imagine the government told you you couldnt sell your house because the ONLY guy willing to buy it already owns 100 houses. Thats not my concern if I NEED to sell. The government should have to find you a buyer if they are going to reject a sale. Forcing someone to keep a company that they dont want to own anymore seems a bit un-American in my opinion.

Rated X wrote:Our governments anti-trust laws are flawed. I get that a "monopoly" has been considered a bad thing since the industrial revolution. But on the other hand, when your dealing with that kind of money, the buyers are very limited. If someone whats to sell, that should be their right. Imagine the government told you you couldnt sell your house because the ONLY guy willing to buy it already owns 100 houses. Thats not my concern if I NEED to sell. The government should have to find you a buyer if they are going to reject a sale. Forcing someone to keep a company that they dont want to own anymore seems a bit un-American in my opinion.

I'm going to go with antitrust laws as a good thing. Hasbro having a good 75% of all the toy aisles is not something I want to see. Who else would compete with them, Bandai and Lego? Hasbro would be able to do what they want with TRU and they'd have a really strong bargaining position with Walmart and Target to set prices.

Well thank god for that. The last thing we need is one company having a monopoly on most of the Western toy market. Especially given Di$ney's large amount of control over Hasbro these days.

kurthy wrote:

Rated X wrote:Our governments anti-trust laws are flawed. I get that a "monopoly" has been considered a bad thing since the industrial revolution. But on the other hand, when your dealing with that kind of money, the buyers are very limited. If someone whats to sell, that should be their right. Imagine the government told you you couldnt sell your house because the ONLY guy willing to buy it already owns 100 houses. Thats not my concern if I NEED to sell. The government should have to find you a buyer if they are going to reject a sale. Forcing someone to keep a company that they dont want to own anymore seems a bit un-American in my opinion.

I'm going to go with antitrust laws as a good thing. Hasbro having a good 75% of all the toy aisles is not something I want to see. Who else would compete with them, Bandai and Lego? Hasbro would be able to do what they want with TRU and they'd have a really strong bargaining position with Walmart and Target to set prices.

I dont see "competition" as being a threat to the toy industry. Its just not the same thing as the auto industry or the fast food industry. Does an 8 year old Star Wars fan really care what company produces Star Wars toys? Only one company is going to own the licence anyways so exactly where is the "competition" ? How many of you Transformers fans walk into a TRU and say "Hasbro makes too much money, so let me buy MOTU instead of Transformers today"? I seriously doubt it. Competition cant exist unless 2 different companies make the same thing. Toy franchises have licenses so that doesnt happen outside of Chinese. KOs.

I don't see how Hasbro and Mattel merging would create a monopoly. When I go to the main Toy Fair at the Javits Center every year, I'm reminded how incredibly small the world of Hasbro and Mattel truly are in the toy industry. I've wanted to see what Hasbro could do with Masters of the Universe and see what Mattel could do with G.I. Joe, it seems like a merger would be the best way to see both of those brands become all that they can. I'd love to see this happen!

Mattel are missing out on a major point. Hasbro had been going out buying animation companies so they could have used that to get a cartoon up & running to go against Hasbro main lines. They aren't going to do a Marvel & buy out then scrap them (Malibu)

Uh, this isn't over, people. Mattel rejected this offer, they did not rule out further negotiations. This could still happen, just at a higher offer.

Seibertron wrote:I don't see how Hasbro and Mattel merging would create a monopoly. When I go to the main Toy Fair at the Javits Center every year, I'm reminded how incredibly small the world of Hasbro and Mattel truly are in the toy industry. I've wanted to see what Hasbro could do with Masters of the Universe and see what Mattel could do with G.I. Joe, it seems like a merger would be the best way to see both of those brands become all that they can. I'd love to see this happen!

Exactly. And when two similar companies buy each other out like this what they're really after is their brands. Hasbro isn't going to buy them just to shut them down and make room for their own stuff on the shelves. To the average person they'd just see the same stuff they're used to seeing on the shelves like Barbie, DC Comics figures, and WWE figures.

kurthy wrote:Hasbro would be able to do what they want with TRU and they'd have a really strong bargaining position with Walmart and Target to set prices.

I don't think their position would change much since they need toy stores to survive. They work well with TRU because they typically sell things at MSRP when there isn't a sale. It's Walmart and Target they struggle with (especially Walmart) because they're big enough that they set their own wholesale prices which is how they're able to sell for $5 under MSRP. But it also cuts into their own potential profits because it narrows the margin after production costs. It also hurts TRU in competition, probably why they don't stock as many Transformers as we'd like them to.

Taking up more shelf space under their name probably wouldn't help them since Walmart can be pretty underhanded when they don't get their way. They can always narrow Hasbro's footprint and find other very eager companies to fill in the space.

Black Hat wrote:Especially given Di$ney's large amount of control over Hasbro these days.

The only control Disney has over Hasbro is with their own licenses and that's true with any license. There was rumor of Disney angling to buy Hasbro shortly after buying Marvel and it didn't go anywhere. I don't think that's something that really interests Disney, I don't believe Hasbro has anything that interests Disney outside of maybe MLP, and if they wanted a toy company of their own they could just make one.

Emerje