Mattel Rejects Takeover Offer from Hasbro

Good !!

Hasbro can sell Monopoly but not be a monopoly

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

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.

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.

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!

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