Toy Maker Hasbro To Acquire Entertainment One In A $4bn Deal

The U.S. based toy manufacturer popularly known as Hasbro is on the verge to acquire Entertainment One which owns the Peppa Pig cartoon series. The deal is said to cost somewhere around $3.3 billion ($4bn) according to a statement from the firm. Hasbro aims to expand its entertainment and family based portfolio for storytelling. The UK based Entertainment One also owns other titles like the PJ Masks which are very popular among preschool kids all around the world.

This one is the latest among many acquisitions of the UK based companies by foreign firms. Another such buyout was a £4.4 billion buyout of the famous UK based Pub chain called the Greene King. According to sources, every individual shares holder in Entertainment One will get £5.40 for every single share they possess in common.

The firm said in a statement that Hasbro will be using the assets of Entertainment One to appeal to their viewer base about the portfolio of both firms that comprises of gamers, children and families to all the screens globally.

Hasbro is behind a number of entertainment titles like the transformer franchise, my little pony etc. They also own the Monopoly board game as well as the play doh. Entertainment One, on the other hand makes a lot of popular kid’s centric and teen movies and television titles like the Peppa Pig and PJ Masks.

The firm issued a statement in which they said that the most popular preschool television programs have now been translated to nearly 40 different languages and will be broadcasted in around 180 different countries now.

Peppa pig is particularly very popular in the Chinese market where it was first introduced back in the year 2000. In China alone, they have gathered over 34 million views on the domestic online video streaming platforms.