In December 2019, Hasbro, home to G.I. Joe, Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons brands, closed a 3.8 billion deal for Entertainment One, a producer with a 6,500 title library and popular cartoons like Peppa Pig and Pj Masks.
The toymaker soon regretted the move, and this past May — when Hasbro was fending off a proxy battle from activist investor Alta Fox, which tried to get it to spin off its games division — called the timing on the studio buy “unfortunate,” indicating it overspent.
Now Hasbro is unloading eOne, disclosing Nov. 17 it hired bankers to explore a sale of the studio but keep IP like Peppa Pig. That’s a nod to investors who have urged the company to sell part of all of eOne to reinvest in fewer, more profitable properties, and to do so with outside partners to reduce costs and risk. Wall Street analysts applauded the move.
