Thursday, August 18, 2016

A Disney-Hasbro Marriage?

Seeking Alpha (an investment site) wonders.

... The Walt Disney Company is adopting the evolving industry trends after losing more than 7 million ESPN subscribers since 2013. Disney has responded to continued cord cuttings with seemingly small but crucial investment in BAMTECH, which will help the company roll out an ESPN-based multi-sport streaming service.

Disney is implementing a long-term plan that revolves around penetrating direct-to-consumer video streaming market. In the meanwhile, Disney is working on the multi-year expansion of theme parks and resorts by adding new attractions to compete with Dalian Wanda Group and Comcast. Similarly, Disney has scheduled movie releases well into the next decade to benefit from expected growth in global per capita film spending. ...

Disney is not very good at selling toys, which is evident from the disappointing sales performance Playmation and substantial discounts on Marvel-based connected wearables. Hasbro, on the other hand, utilizing franchised and licensed brands to generate healthy sales and profits growth.

Hasbro is one of the primary beneficiaries of favorable toys & games industry dynamics due to its strong storytelling abilities. According to Euromonitor, with a substantial improvement over the past five years, the U.S. toys & games industry sales will grow at a CAGR of 3% by 2020. However, on the global scale, the growth prospects are even brighter due to improving per capita income in emerging markets. ...

Of course, Hasbro is also in the cartoon-making business, which is well inside Diz Co.'s wheelhouse.

But that wouldn't stop the Mouse if it thought buying Hasbro would be a good buying opportunity. (Disney has purchased cartoon companies before, after all, because John Lasseter and Ed Catmull. And if Hasbro is a toy/game powerhouse and Disney believes that it needs one of those, why not do a buyout?)

The question is, does the purchase of Hasbro make corporate sense to Robert Iger and co.? And what would become of Hasbro's animation arm? And new Irish studio? These are things to ponder.

1 comments:

attmay said...

Maybe Hasbro will have better luck in Ireland than Don Bluth did.

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