On Monday Hasbro, as in the toymaker Hasbro, said it was selling the music business of Entertainment One for $385 million cash to investment firm Blackstone, according to Deadline. Hasbro’s brands include: My Little Pony, Transformers, Monopoly, Peppa Pig, and lots of other stuff.
Well, actually that would be the broad way of putting it. More precisely, Hasbro will sell eOne Music to entities that Blackstone controls. After the deal is finalized eOne Music will run as a separate business under current president Chris Taylor.
To refresh those of you who don’t remember (or never knew or never cared or lots of other possibilities) Hasbro acquired eOne Music back in 2019 in an overall acquisition of Canada’s Entertainment One. We wrote about it at the time. In a move that would’ve been crazy to predict, say, back in the ‘90s, the deal made Hasbro the owner of Death Row Records. That’s because eOne became Death Row’s parent company after purchasing its catalog for $280 million in 2013. Death Row had filed for bankruptcy in 2006.
Variety points out that eOne also owns titles by The Game, Brandy, Chuck Berry, En Vogue, Ghostface Killah, RZA, and others.
“This transaction will ensure that eOne Music is well positioned to unlock great opportunities for its many talented artists and partners, as Hasbro continues to focus on the core strategic elements of … play and entertainment,” said Hasbro’s CEO Brian Goldner about this latest deal.
The goal now is for Hasbro to use the profit it makes here to pay down debts and other expenses. The deal should be finalized in the second or third quarter of 2021, Deadline reports.
