Hasbro ends talks to buy DreamWorks

Posted by Seibertron Nov 15, 2014 at 10:14am CST 41,172 views

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Well that was quick! As soon as we got wind that Hasbro had expressed interest in buying DreamWorks on Thursday, it appeared as of yesterday (i.e. one day later), the deal has already gone kaput! In the world of Deal or No Deal ... NO DEAL!

Various reasons are the cause of the quick collapse of these talks. From a predictably negative reaction from Disney, to Wall Street analysts who deemed the $35 a share asking price from Dreamworks too steep, to Hasbro shares losing 4% on Thursday and an additional 2% on Friday. Perhaps there are some additional reasons, but the bottom line is that this deal won't be happening in this reality. You can check out the full articles about the demise of the Hasbro/DreamWorks via HollywoodReporter.com and NYtimes.com.

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Re: Hasbro ends talks to buy DreamWorks (view post)

Comment by Nemesis Maximo Nov 15, 2014

Kind of a bummer, but I guess the status quo is the same, so it's not like it's a defeat. Maybe.

Still, it could have been cool to see what kind pf animated TF series that partnership may have produced. Maybe in a different life...

Re: Hasbro ends talks to buy DreamWorks (view post)

Comment by spiderbob007 Nov 15, 2014

My first thought was, why would Hasbro want to merge with a failing company and put the CEO of the failing company, Jeffrey Katzenberg, in charge?

My suspicion is that Hasbro is really courting Disney, and their merger talks with DreamWorks and Softbank were to make their intended suitor jealous. I have read that Disney has 30% of Hasbro's business in toys; which includes Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Junior and Disney Princess. A merger between the two is probably inevitable, its just a matter of when and under what circumstances. If Hasbro can show that they are a desirable partner to competing companies, they can negotiate a better deal with Disney.

If they do merge, we can also get a collection of Marvel era Transformers comics with issue 3, featuring Spider-Man.

Re: Hasbro ends talks to buy DreamWorks (view post)

Comment by Railbomb Nov 15, 2014

spiderbob007 wrote:My first thought was, why would Hasbro want to merge with a failing company and put the CEO of the failing company, Jeffrey Katzenberg, in charge?

My suspicion is that Hasbro is really courting Disney, and their merger talks with DreamWorks and Softbank were to make their intended suitor jealous. I have read that Disney has 30% of Hasbro's business in toys; which includes Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Junior and Disney Princess. A merger between the two is probably inevitable, its just a matter of when and under what circumstances. If Hasbro can show that they are a desirable partner to competing companies, they can negotiate a better deal with Disney.

If they do merge, we can also get a collection of Marvel era Transformers comics with issue 3, featuring Spider-Man.

The current IDW reprints include all issues of the original Marvel series including issue 3 with Spider Man and all the issues with Circuit Breaker.

Re: Hasbro ends talks to buy DreamWorks (view post)

Comment by Sabrblade Nov 15, 2014