RUMOR - Disney In Talks To Purchase Hasbro Inc And Transformers

[Omegatron]

This may be rumor and there may be nothing to it but I just wanted to see if it is a rumor that makes sense, so I ran some quick numbers.

A bit of research shows that Hasbro has a current market capitalization of $4.63 billion US. Disney has current Market capitalization of $90.21 billion US. Disney currently has a current liquidity ratio of 1.14. They don’t have enough cash to buy Hasbro outright but as their current assets outweigh their liabilities by more than $1 billion US they could easily debt finance the purchase. A hostile takeover would cost a bit more but should be well within Disney’s abilities.

As people have said Disney could quickly use Hasbro’s assets to generate additional profits, negating a lot of the purchase price. Purchasing Hasbro would allow Disney to bring their intellectual property and the manufacturing of toys and merchandise under one roof. The real question for Disney is do they want to become a toy company (responsible for manufacturing real things) or do they simply wish to remain an entertainment company? The purchase of Hasbro would have Disney getting into new industries in a way that purchasing Lucasfilm did not. This would not be as smooth a transition and things would go wrong (probably on the manufacturing side) in the short term. Intellectual property is also Disney’s bread and butter so they would go after third parties much more aggressively than Hasbro has. This would cost money which they have to be willing to spend.

However, if Disney does want to go this way then this rumor not only makes sense but Disney would be missing an opportunity not to do it.

[chuchupika]

Disney will buy it if it has any interest.

Disney had this fight with Pixar, then end up buying them off. Then they bought Marvel. Then they bought Lucasfilm. Not a bit surprise they want to buy Hasbro as well.

[Tekkamanraiden]

I can't see them making two large purchases in the same year.

[racerguy76]

Originally Posted by Tekkamanraiden

I can't see them making two large purchases in the same year.

Next year is not very far away.

[justprime]

With the capital disney and its affilliates own purchasing another company is not an issue and that they can recoup it vary quickly is in itself incentive,.. Disney having control over producing its own toy lines is a logical decission and cuts out the middle man and puts them in full control.... as for Takara/Tomys stake disney has already "played nice" here with their earlier optimouse, bumbleduck, and buzz don't see a problem here and going by what Takara produces compared to hasbro it will probably be a good partnership.Go Disney

[Omegatron]

A bit more background on the pros and cons of this deal if anyone is interested.

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post...b-6869a1e26688

[Goaliebot]

Hasbro says no such discussions are happening.
Whew!
I'm excited about Disney buying Lucasfilm, but TFs are also different thing - especially the certain 3rd party crackdown we'd surely have seen.

[Shepp]

Yeah, I hadn't thought about relation to 3rd party companies and productions. No doubt they'd call down the thunder and wipe them out into the stone age.

On the plus side, the larger ones are developed enough to producing their own properties as highly detailed figures/models disconnected from the Transformers franchise.

[shabooya]

Originally Posted by sarmick01

Great....i can just see it now, Transformers the musical.

WOuld still be better than baysformers.

[brr-icy]

Originally Posted by Shepp

Yeah, I hadn't thought about relation to 3rd party companies and productions. No doubt they'd call down the thunder and wipe them out into the stone age.

On the plus side, the larger ones are developed enough to producing their own properties as highly detailed figures/models disconnected from the Transformers franchise.

the main issue i wouldn't like is reprolabels, they make g1 collecting so much easier

and fansproject of course