Finally – we might be getting those Batman Transformers toys we’ve all been dreaming about! Okay, probably not, but an interesting article popped up recently from Bloomberg Business that states that the two largest toy companies in the world – Hasbro and Mattel – are having talks about merging both companies in to one mega toy company. Interesting snippets from the article are as follows:
Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. have held talks about merging two of the world’s biggest toymakers, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would bring together the owner of the My Little Pony and Furby brands with Barbie and Hot Wheels.
…
This is not the first time a combination has been talked about. Two decades ago — almost to the day — Mattel withdrew a $5.2 billion offer for Hasbro, citing an “intolerable climate” created by its competitor’s use of the media and politicians to fight the proposed takeover. Back then, Hasbro resisted the deal in what Mattel described as a “scorched earth” campaign to stop it.
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A merger might not face that many antitrust hurdles because the U.S. toy industry is very fragmented, according to Jaime Katz, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. If combined, the companies would have probably about one quarter of the market in the U.S., she said.
So what does this mean? Not much really – companies often approach each other from time to time about potential mergers and 9 times out of 10 nothing comes of it. However, with Hasbro‘s staying power thanks to their hands in the Hollywood pot of gold and deals with Disney (who owns the Marvel and Star Wars properties), one can only assume that this would be Hasbro going after Mattel and not the other way around like in the past.
Obviously, if any more details break from this development we’ll post it up. Special thanks to our sister site ToyArk.com for the find!
SilverOptimus
We got your back…
CEO Brian Goldner Talks About The Hasbro Empire – Transformer World 2005 – TFW2005.COM
Rodimus Prime
TLDR for those unable to watch the video?
AzT
https://twitter.com/HasbroNews/status/697787710833061888
Hasbro CEO: Brands today are driven by media properties
Hasbro CEO, Brian Goldner, talks #HasbroToyFair on @SquawkCNBC
Goldner speaks about the topic of this thread at around the 4:26 mark
Wheeljack_Prime
Any chance if it goes through we can finally get a real DOTM Mirage toy?
THE-TRANSFORMER
One could argue that Transformers as a Brand is being ruined by Hasbro in the ever changing landscape that Transformers populate. Look at TMNT and the way they handle it. Predominantly with the Nickelodeon's cartoon there is no real reason for collectors of the 80's not to purchase the toys of today or put another way, buy and push their kids into TMNT due to their own personal nostalgia. Transformers on the other hand has kids who grew up in the 80's as parents looking at transformers today and not making that connection. You then have Beast Wars, AEC, Movie verse, animated all vastly different and all creating their own pocket of fans. It's clear G1 is the most popular with Hasbro trying to "trick" consumers by putting the original 80's box art on the toys of the latest movie. I know many of my friends have their kids watch DVD's of the original cartoon which creates even more of a disconnect.
You mention Barbie vs Monster High, at least there is always Barbie on the shelf. If G1 is the Barbie equivalent to the Transformers Brand then merchandise should always be available for it.
As for the merger, Hasbro should just wait it out and let Disney buy them in 2 years time.
Exinferis
Re: Faelon's post and Mattycollector. Hasbro would have to re-work MC from the ground up for it to become anywhere near a decent Direct to Customer selling platform; it's horrendous in its current state, as I mentioned way back in this thread.
The first, and most important job, would be do get rid of Digital River. As a MOTU and Ghostbusters fan, I've had to put up with that hateful company for 6 years! It's by far the worst part of MC, whilst also being the biggest part; it's DR that provide the selling base (the website), the payment gateway and the customer service. The problems are those three things!
1) There are frequently issues with the website. It's very outdated, for one thing. Often a figure is incorrectly priced or it glitches; i.e a DoS figure should be $27.00, but it's showing as $27,00.00.
2) Paying for your figures can be like pulling teeth! If a subscription gets cancelled (either due to a failed payment, usually because DR has tried to charge a card that expired last year, even though you updated the details with them!) you have to jump through hoops to get it reinstated. This will either involve a phone call or e-mail to their CS, which leads us to…
3) Their terrible CS! There's one bloke that works in America that actually knows what's being sold on MC, the rest of the CS [we believe] is located in either India or Malaysia (depending on who's spoken to whom via the phone). The language barrier aside, the fact is most of the people there don't know who He-Man is, let alone Z-listers like Nepthu, so when one phones/e-mails and asks, "Where's my Nepthu figure from my MOTUC sub?" it's unsurprising the response is not very helpful!
Almost everything has to be escalated to someone (the one bloke in America!) who knows what we're on about. This all takes time and is frustrating as all get-out!
There's a long list of problems with MC and they're almost always caused by DR, so if Hasbro were to take over Mattel I think their best bet would be to close MC altogether and open their own site. HTS that sells Worldwide would do it!
Well, if Mattel have anything to do with it you can forget it! They can't even get their own licenced vehicles into Hot Wheels! MOTU fans have been asking for years for vehicles to be made into Hot Wheels cars and it's fallen on deaf ears.
DarkEyes
Hope the brand will be better with a company better than the current Hasbro. At this point the plastic used by Hasbro in the regular line is so cheap and hollow that is really hard to believe we can return to the quality of 10 years ago.
Let us believe it can be done with a better company and a better management.
Novaburnhilde
Interesting, I actually thought Hasbro already owned Mattel.
Ragnar
Really interesting and awesome post. Thanks for sharing your insight.
Wh33l JcK
He-Man Inhumanoids cross-over?
Hanzkaz
I'm just thinking about the possibility of getting Hot Wheels Autobot cars…
Lady Slipstream
I was looking at the news, when suddenly, they talk about the possible merger of Hasbro And Mattel…
I tought it wasn't real
Xabungle
The existence of Meteorbs and the Comet Warriors? Meteorbs weren't terrible for the time. But the Comet Warriors – Rokkon and Stonedar – are the saddest transforming figures of all time. It's tough to make Rock Lords make good, but…
Rex was produced by a company purchased by Mattel in a leveraged buyout. Tyco toys, specifically – Rex is the Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Dino Riders line.
Faelon
Here's where it gets a little hard for the lay people (us) to follow.
Hasbro is successful and has value mainly based on their IP's, both internal and licensed external. Internal is stuff like GI Joe, Transformers, MLP etc. External is Star Wars, Marvel, and now Disney Princesses.
Harbro also has a number of well placed and well valued Brands. Brands differ from IP somewhat, although it is sometimes hard for we the consumer to recognize the subtle difference. Examples of Hasbro's Brands include Playdo, Parker Brothers, Tonka, Playskool, Milton Bradley etc. Mr. Potato head is one of those strange ones that is both a brand and an IP. Transformers is close to that in some ways. Basically brands are longer lasting subunits of products that have an established trust relationship with the consumer.
Mattel is similarly structured although it has stronger brands and weaker individual IP's. Their brands include Barbie (which yes is both a Brand and an IP but is strongest as a brand to the extent that Girls toy aisles are refereed to as the Pink aisles). Mattel also has Fisher Price, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, American Girl (which is a rather specific and strong specialty distribution and retail chain in and of itself), Megabloks, and for some rather strange reason they own Ringling Brothers and Barnum&Bailey Circus and the Ice Capades.
Mattel's IP's include in house He-Man, Monster High, Polly Pocket, and external licenses such as Disney Cars/Planes, WWE,
As you can see Mattel's value lies in the strength of it's long term brands and much of the infrastructure that supports them. Barbie (and its IP offshoot Monster High) Hotwheels/Matchbox etc. And those are what Hasbro would want to add to their operations. Especially something like American Girl. Which alongside Matty Colector would give Hasbro a pre built starting place for D2C sales channels that they so desperately lack. (That alone could be very good for us long term. The reason we see so few North American Hasbro releases of adult collector things like MP's is they have no readily available direct channel to get such products to the adult collector market. And the mass merchants such as TRU do not seek that consumer base or model.)
Here's one of the key ways to differentiate brands from IP. IP tends to have a limited lifespan (rare exceptions to this). Interest in IP's will eb and flow depending on media presence, nostalgia etc. IP's more often then not have a 5 year effective lifespan. Or bursts of 2-5 years. Whereas Brands have established themselves to the point where they will be a permanent and ongoing presence. The consumer trusts the brand, not the fad. Monster High will outsell Barbie in the short run of a few years. But Barbie will still be selling well for 30 solid years. And that is where the value lies.
Autovolt 127
They'd own their biggest competition.
They can start making toys of DC and they already have the license for Marvel.
They can do a lot with the He-Man license like reboot the crap out of it.
and the girl lines are already pretty much hits so it's more moola for them.
Cast
Really what IP's do Mattle have that Hasbro could want? Given they are going for being more of an IP company than a toy company now. I mean Barbie is clearly in the lead there, hot wheels which I could be wrong about but they are toy cars, not exactly a lot of story there but I could be wrong and they have a massive story that I know nothing about, then what? He-Man? How much of a market do they have? Is the fan base that massive? I am not knocking them I really don't know much about that fandom.
I don't see this as likely but its got to come down to what would both companies get out of this, I am not seeing exactly what hasbro gains? Some licensed IPs? Couldn't they just go after them without having to bother with merger, it would be cheaper.
Macross7
I'm surprised there isn't a call for Disney to buy Hasbro so they'd own Transformers and more likely to get a different director for the movies.
Murasame
I really hope Hasbro would take over Mattel.
TFW10
Hasbro has limited girl toys, Mattel being Hasbro's partner may not be a bad thing for Hasbro
thunder117
Hmm, odd. I assumed they were different due to differing reasons as to why they previously in the past refused to allow HasTak to use their vehicle licensing (Porsche – douchey and arrogant, while VW was afraid of the image of Bumblebee with guns transforming into a Beetle).