Disney In Talks To Purchase Hasbro Inc And GIJOE

MTV Geek is reporting that Disney is in talks to purchase Hasbro

"By "Geek Spy"
OK folks, take this one with a grain of plastic for the time being. Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard that Disney acquired Lucasfilm for roughly $4 billion last week and Marvel for around the same price a few years prior. Well, we have it on good authority that serious discussions are happening at the highest levels of both Disney and Hasbro to fold the largest toy and game company on the planet into the Mouse.
From what we’re told, these are still just discussions at this point, but serious enough that something could be announced at any time and create ripples throughout the entertainment industry. "

MTV Geek | Headlines - RUMOR: Disney Buying Hasbro?

Update 11/7/12:
Rumor is currently debunked, for now:
http://news.providencejournal.com/bu...bro-stock.html

MTV needs to consult Fact Checker.

Mattel is still way bigger than Hasbro.

From Businesswire.com re: 2012 3rd Quarter:
Mattel, Operating income of $487.4 million
http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...sults-Declares

From Yahoo Finance re: 2012 3rd Quarter:
Hasbro, Net earnings for the third quarter 2012 were $164.9 million
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hasbro...103000253.html

Shhh... don't let Disney hear you.

We still have Superfriends, Robotech and Thundercats to protect from the Mouse. They can't own everything.

Not like this hasn't been a rumor for several years now, but it'd basically complete the trifecta for Bob Iger's tenure at Disney.

My only issue is that I really have a hard time envisioning G.I. Joe playing on a Disney channel. But by the same token: If Disney ends up with Transformers, Clone Wars, My Little Pony, Disney's own properties, and Marvel's stuff on Disney XD, I think it would be a safe assumption to say that Disney XD might quickly put Cartoon Network in second place as far as animated programming goes, particularly for young boys.

And Disney's money and marketing backing up Hasbro's brands is a formidable prospect. This is the kind of thing that might get Hasbro's brands (even G.I. Joe) sold in other countries again.

But still just a rumor at this point.

Disney owning Robotech is the only way we can get new Veritech toys in America. I hate calling them Valkyrie, Gerwalk, and Battroid.

Would this potential purchase be a good thing, bad thing, or no thing for GI Joe?

Yeah but they own Transformers.
The Transformers Films
Transformers (2007)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
$1.074 billion
(does not include the 1986 film)

And I'm sure Disney would love to own the property right to Hasbro's catalog. That list is full of win for Disney.

It makes good business sense- especially now that Disney owns some of the largest toy properties. The potential is tremendous. It would be interesting to see what sort of exclusives Disney would offer at their theme parks for regular visits, and if they themselves started offering yearly Convention style packages and Fan Club memberships.

Think this may have something to do with the fact that Hasbro has the manufacturing rights to Lucas films (Star Wars Indiana Jones) Also I don't see this being a completely bad thing, Disney has been growing darker (Pirates, Lone ranger) and it could give Joe a good push

Sounds expensive.

hmmmm? This maybe a good thing. Maybe will get a new G.i. Joe cartoon. & Maybe will get a new Transformers Cartoon. Transformers Prime is a let down. But i all so think back of when they had Power Rangers. The tryed to end Power Rangers. What if they try to end G.i. Joe & Transformers????????????????????

I'm not overly suprised to hear Disney wants Hasbro in fact don't Disney and Hasbro have some past relationship with a store they partnered in?

But I would be suprised to hear so soon after dropping 4.05 billion which is ALOT of cash that they would suddenly drop more cash on this, I'm not saying they don't have it...its Disney for gods sakes, but it just sounds suprising so soon on the heals of the Lucas buy out.

Really hard to say at this point. Much like the Lucasfilm acquisition, it could be great, or it could be business as usual.

On one hand a "military fantasy" doesn't sound like the kind of thing that Disney would be keen on, but on the other hand Disney has been taking a "hands off" approach to their newly-acquired subsidiaries so far. Plus, Disney does do a lot of "support the troops" type stuff with the military's MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) departments, so in many ways they are pro-military. I could see them "pushing" G.I. Joe in conjunction with that. Imagine a segment of the "Shades of Green" military resort at Disney where you have costumed G.I. Joe characters wandering around to entertain the kids, for example.

It's worth pointing out that these deals aren't "cash" deals. Disney isn't giving Lucas 4 billion dollars straight up. He's getting about 2 billion in cash, and then another 2 billion in Disney stock.

These acquisitions have been more like mergers than outright buyouts. A lot of the bigwigs from these companies are becoming big-time shareholders in Disney out of the deal.

For hypothetical example: If Hasbro gets bought out by Disney, don't be surprised if Brian Goldner ends up with a seat at Disney's corporate table.

Does this mean the Baroness will be hanging out with Snow White now?

Hasbro has a net worth of 11.26 billion dollars.

LOL! I think Disney just wants to buy the IP for Transformers and the rest so they can license it out to Mattel to make. I don't see Disney wanting to own and operate factories in China ... too much bad PR; all it would take is someone jumping off the roof of a factory

Don't think for a moment that Disney is too pacifistic for the likes of GI Joe. The Avengers weren't shaking the Chitauri's hands and asking nicely if they'd leave. Star Wars is far from non-violent (if you ignore that if it wasn't for the burned bodies of Owen and Beru, Star Wars would have been rated G). And Disney never hesitated at dropping a cartoon witch off a cliff, or shooting Bambi's mother.

13th Warrior was a Disney owned movie.

I'm telling you- Joe Cons will be at Disney if they buy Hasbro.

So long as that's DisneyLand, I'm there.

That's true, but the "net worth" isn't always what these buyouts go for. Many people were saying that the Lucasfilm buyout was a huge bargain for Disney.

As I pointed out earlier, it's far easier to get the other company to "make a deal" if you're all-but-ensuring their decision-makers and major shareholders are going to get a fat personal payday out of it.

Wasnt Disney the one that has said, War Toys dont sell.

Day 1 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Fire whichever idiot is in charge of distribution.
Day 2 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Hire Dan Curto for Marvel Development
Day 3 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Hire me for the GIJoe team development
Day 4 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Turn HasbroToyShop into a literal representation of the Hasbro Warehouses and stocks to increase sales and exposure of toys.
Day 5 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Announce that the Coyote will be available as an online exclusive via HTS.
Day 6 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Find and release the missing POC Repaints
Day 7 of Disney Owned Hasbro: Rest + Profit

Best.
Week.
Ever.

I really think it is to own the IPs and not necessarily the profits from merchandising that would drive Disney to purchase Hasbro ... Disney would own My Little Pony, and maybe Care Bears. Historically, Disney licenses out merchandising; easier to pay Mattel to make Cars toys than to make Cars toys itself

Actually, it would not surprise me if they held Cons at both locations each year to make the Cons more accessible- they have all the recreational facilities and the changing locations of Cons each year has always been an source of irritation for Club members. They have the manufacturing capacity as well to produce the exclusives. I would guess each Disney World Joe Con and Disney Land Joe Con would even offer the same exclusives though.

Oh yeah.
Day 8: Rip the Fanclub license from FunPub's fingers. Both Fanclubs.

But once again, if Disney remains mostly hands-off save as a money source, they would then have a company to handle that for them. While there's no doubt the IPs are the most valuable thing to Disney, they're unlikely to shut down the toy manufacturing side of Hasbro, because in all honesty, Mattel wouldn't be able to handle all that outsourcing (and wouldn't necessarily be interested in paying all those license fees to Disney, either).

If you have the expertise and infrastructure in-house, it doesn't make sense to go outside that. And Disney already does a lot more than just serve as an IP holding company, and always have.

I would not be entirely surprised if Disney folded almost all their IPs together and did "consolidated" cons. Transformers, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Disney, Marvel, etc.... All rolled into one mega-con. They'd almost instantly end up with one of the biggest cons in the country. And sink a large portion of San Diego Comic-Con along the way (note that they already pulled the Marvel films out of SDCC last year).

"Hands-off" means being an IP holding company, that was the party line sold for the merger with Marvel; I just think that if Disney wanted to be a First-Party toy manufacturer, it would have done so long ago. I don't think it is going to buy Hasbro to just shut it down, I actually don't think it is going to buy Hasbro.

Jesus you got a point.
SDCC gets 130,000+ visitors for a weekend.
Now imagine that full force of nerd-dom brought to Disney World.

That's entirely possible, but in point of fact, Disney does to my understanding do some first-party toy manufacturing, largely for exclusive merch in their parks and retail outlets. It's not huge, but it's there.

Been seeing this for awhile, just a matter of time. Buy HAS and make a few bucks while you can

Don't expect any of the Hasbro toy properties to go to Mattel if the acquisition occurs. It doesn't make sense to buy something so tremendous-with so much already existing infrastructure and resources and then not use it. They will use Hasbro to fullest. There maybe organizational changes and perhaps even changes in which manufacturing facilities they use but, they won't be renting out GI Joe or TF to Matty.

I'm fine with this rumor. Maybe clean house at Hasbro in the management section finally.

Consolidated Cons is an interesting idea and I see the logic of that. My thinking is that by specializing in separate Cons for each brand it gives Disney the opportunity to develop more product and functions for each brand yielding a higher profit and too, spreading out various Cons over the course of year would allow them to schedule at non-peak resort times and fill in the gaps when regular tourists aren't vacationing.

The thing about Lucasfilm is that Lucas was the sole owner, so he could sell it for whatever he wanted. For Lucas, he may have been able to get more for the company, but he probably was most confident with Disney's ability to maintain the brand, and he has had a relationship with them for years.
Hasbro is a publicly traded company, and it takes a lot more people to give the ok to a sale. If Disney really does buy Hasbro, it would probably be for more than the $11 billion they are "worth".

Oh no!
It's deth of everythin'!
All your toys will belong to Disney now.
;)

With all of their recent acquisitions, it's probably only a matter of time...

I can't say I'd be bothered by it. Hell imagine if Disney had control over the Hub. They could start showing reruns of Marvel shows on the Hub and in turn show reruns of Transformers and G.I. Joe on the Disney Channel.

We would finally have those damn Transformers issues with Spider-Man reprinted. Disney could try to get the film rights to Transformers away from Paramount, although after seeing how much the Avengers made under the Disney name they might not be too keen on selling it off...But still, there is hope.

Really what's the worst that could happen? Because this already exists.


My name is Optimouse Prime

Buying Hasbro makes perfect sense. Hasbro has been making Marvel figures for years, Star Wars toys for decades and even Indiana Jones. All of these brands Disney now has, plus buying Hasbro would give them three major brands. Transformers, G.I. Joe, MLP:FiM.

Contracts Hasbro already has would have to be honored, much is the case with LucasFilms. So Jurassic Park toys could still be made by Hasbro. I'm not seeing a down side so far. Unless Disney comes out says "Hey, you know how Mattel has Barbie as different Characters? Lets do that with Joe in a 12" Disney Prince line." But until I hear something that stupid I'm not going to complain. Besides, Disney probably wants to distance themselves from Mattel since Disney owns Marvel and Mattel is largely a DC company. I wouldn't be surprised if and when they buy Hasbro they let them manufacture Disney products as soon at their Mattel contract is up, just to have all their toy lines under one name...and to avoid Mattel practically destroying a toy-line like did with DC universe classics.

I can also see Hasbro benefiting from this too. Case in point: As stupid as a Candy Land movie sounds, if it has Pixar in the title, people will flock to see it.

Sam Jackson -- George Lucas Got CHEATED!!!! | TMZ.com

I bet Fun Pub is shitting their pants right now. Disney will likely end their contract with the club if the mouse plans on marketing GI Joe or TF at all. If this happens I hope Disney starts a new club. Maybe even a better one.

I know it's just a rumor but...what the hell sort of madness is this?

Disney owning basically every geek interest I have? Might as well sell my own soul with that before the world blows up in December...

Ever heard of "Touchstone"? They've made some pretty grim stuff.

They're a Disney company.

Honestly, unless Donald Duck becomes a Joe, I really don't care what Disney does with it's money.

To be honest though...I really don't think such acquisition would impact us all that much, as far as collectors. Unless Retaliation is a mega hit and completely revamps the franchise, GI JOe will probably stick in its little side spot like it has for the last 4 years.

Going by how Marvel has operated, aside from getting a ton of cash to make even MORE movies, I've yet to see a huge shift in how they've done business in their comic or film sections.

The only real change I expect would be the appearance of the castle appearing on Hasbro merchandise.

All new Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander. Joes commanded by Donald Duke, lol.

Why are rumors like this being supported?

Anyone with half a brain would know that Disney cannot afford two major purchases like this in such a short time.

I hope that's not the case, or I hope that it takes a year or two for the club's contract to expire. I purchased that figure sub and I want my figures thank you very much.

I'm sure its just Disney trying to get the rights from hasbro for the sweet toysand not everything. Crap always gets over hyped when it is probably something small.

If this would go down, and it seems like a big if...will the Baroness still be the Baroness if/when she becomes a princess?