Hasbro Denies Disney Acquisition Rumors?

Morrus · Nov 8, 2012

A couple of days ago, the "Disney's buying Hasbro!" rumour started (and we reported it here - Hasbro, of course, owning WotC, which publishes D&D). Now it seems that Hasbro advisors are denying this rumour. Although MTV and others reported that "serious discussions [were] happening at the highest levels” between Hasbro and Disney", Hasbro advisors later said that "absolutely nothing going on that they are aware of at all, in any way, shape or form" involving the two companies - although Hasbro itself declined comment, citing its policy of not talking about rumor or speculation. Wall Street analysts said a Disney acquisition didn't make much sense, just after Disney agreed to buy Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion and "for any deal to happen, Hasbro would have to dissolve agreements with Disney's competitors".

So. Hasbro "advisors" deny it; Hasbro itself isn't commenting; nobody's asked Disney; and "analysts" think it unlikely. Make of that what you will!

Cergorach · Nov 8, 2012

And for any deal to happen, Hasbro would have to dissolve agreements with Disney's competitors.

Ehm... Hasbro is a publicly traded company, for a deal to happen Disney has to get it's hands on 51% of the Hasbro shares (not even 100% as was the case with Lucas Arts).

Also Samsung is the main competitor of Apple (on the Smartphone market), but it was also Apple's biggest supplier (parts), so it's perfectly possible that a company can do business with competitors. It even happened with the Marvel acquisition, a couple non-Disney companies still had licenses to produce Marvel movies, we'll see a couple of movies in 2013/2014 that are still not made by Marvel Studios or distributed by Disney.

Anthro78 · Nov 9, 2012

So, is this like when they denied 4th edition? And 5th edition?

Which means the merger and purchase will happen in less than a year.

Holy Bovine · Nov 9, 2012

Anthro78 said:
So, is this like when they denied 4th edition? And 5th edition?

Which means the merger and purchase will happen in less than a year.

Well considering they didn't deny 4E or 5E I'm not sure what it means

/yes, yes I know the rumor of WotC (not Hasbro but whatever) denying 4E was coming left right and center is ingrained into the nerdmind now but I still keep putting the truth out there.

ProtoClone · Nov 9, 2012

They may be denying a complete buyout, but they haven't denied a partial one.

Disney could be interested in certain IP's, like:

Transformers. Imagine Disney getting a hold of that and making it a part of their theme parks (Cybertron-land). Not to mention the movies, TV shows, toys and games they could invest in to...Yes, they could also destroy it but so could Hasbro.

G.I.Joe. Man, the life they could breath in to this. This, too, would be fun to see in their theme parks, imagine GIJOE vs. Cobra adventure ride. Laser tag arenas where you fight for either the Joes or Cobra. Maybe, just maybe, they might even save it from falling in to a bad movie hell.

Then there is the whole Star Wars property and the rights to make the toys that Disney needs to work out.