Lionsgate Acquires eOne From Hasbro for $500 Million
This morning, Hasbro confirmed that they have sold Entertainment One (eOne) to Lionsgate for $500M, after it was reported a few weeks ago that the studio was the prime candidate to acquire the assets. The final word was finally announced this morning in anticipation of Hasbro’s Q2 earnings call.
Matt Belloni, of Puck News, was the first to get the word out late last night (California time), noting on Twitter that the selling company had lost tons of money on the asset. The $500M price consists of $375M in cash, subject to certain purchase price adjustments, and the assumption by Lionsgate of production financing loans. Hasbro will be using the incoming cash to retire at least $400M of floating-rate debt by the end of the year, when the deal is expected to finally close. To prepare for the sale, eOne has had to undergo massive rounds of layoffs over the past few months.
It should also be noted, however, that the Family Brands division, under which Peppa Pig or PJ Masks are developed, will remain with Hasbro. When the toy company acquired eOne in 2019 (for which they paid $4 billion) they divided it into three branches — Family Brands, Music, and Film and TV. The Music division was sold to private equity firm Blackstone in 2021 for $385M, while the Family Brands branch has been folded into Hasbro’s licensing and merchandising operations. Lionsgate thus acquires control of over 6,5000 library titles, including last year’s The Woman King and the Emmy-nominated series Yellowjackets.
Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said in a statement that they look forward to partnering with Lionsgate on a Monopoly movie and that they will be moving to an asset-lite model moving forward (which they are already doing by partnering with Paramount on this year’s Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the forthcoming animated movie Transformers One):
“This sale fully aligns with our strategy, and we are pleased to bring the process to a successful close. Lionsgate’s management team is experienced in entertainment and adept at driving value, and we’re glad to have found such a good home for our eOne film & TV business. We look forward to partnering with them, especially on a movie adaptation of Monopoly.
Entertainment remains a priority for Hasbro. Hasbro will continue to develop and produce entertainment based on the rich vault of Hasbro-owned brands. We will also bring to life new original ideas designed to fuel all areas of Hasbro’s blueprint including toys, publishing, gaming, licensed consumer products, and location-based entertainment. As part of the sale, we expect to move to an asset-lite model for future live-action entertainment, relying on licensing and partnerships with select co-productions.”
J.P. Morgan and Centerview Partners served as lead financial advisors to Hasbro in the transaction. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Mayer Brown International LLP, and Stikeman Elliott LLP are acting as legal counsel to Hasbro, and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP are acting as legal counsel to Entertainment One Canada Limited.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
