Hasbro and Mattel to Merge?

Rebelscum is reporting that Hasbro and Mattel have held merger talks. Hit the link above to see the story and a link to an article and video on Bloomberg.

If it goes ahead, what do you think it might mean for Star Wars?

 

Wow, talk about two toy titans. From the sounds of it, there are a number of hurdles to climb, legal and otherwise, before G.I. Joe and Barbie move in together. Says a lot about the state of the toy industry when two companies like this consider a joint merger, but together they would have a pretty powerful lineup (Hot Wheels, Barbie, G.I. Joe, Star Wars, My Little Pony).

 

Well, if they merge then a Kylo Roan Little Pony can't be too far off...

 

My sister thinks it would be something like they'd create a new company to oversee both Mattel/Hasbro.

Both toy companies have taken huge financial losses in the past decade w/ Lego outperforming both of them and the overall decline of toy sales. Both also have their own issues. But Mattel is worlds better w/ distribution and doesn't have the horrific issues that Hasbro has in that department. On the business end, Mattel is great at distribution, Hasbo sucks, so likely they could help each other out to streamline that.

I thought Hasbro swiping the Disney Princess line away from Mattel seemed really strange, it's got me thinking that it's a power move to get Mattel on board w/ their merger talks. The Disney Princess line is estimated at 500 million dollars annual budget; losing it took a massive hit to Mattel who's already been having issues because Barbie sales have been declining. They're not down and out though because their own Monster High/Ever After High lines both surpass Barbie for sales.

They'd likely have to keep the 2 divisions separate so that they don't run into licensing problems - Hasbro has Marvel - Mattel has DC Comics.

But their own toy lines could cross over, like we Barbie could be a GI Joe helicopter pilot, or something of the sort.

The kinds of licensing that we would want (like my life long dream of having designer Barbies for the leading ladies of Star Wars) might not happen. HOWEVER, there's no saying talent couldn't switch sides to help develop new toy lines for each company.

 

They could call it Has-Matt... wait, that might not be a good idea .

 

Matt-bro isn't much better - sounds like a couple of guys greeting each other at a bar or pub..

 

Sometimes a rumor, is just a rumor.

http://www.seibertron.com/transform...-brand-blueprints-with-cnbc-squawk-box/34722/