Culture Hasbro Picks Up Power Rangers for $522 Million - Plus some other Saban Entertainment assets that no one cares about

Hasbro Picks Up Power Rangers, Other Saban Entertainment Assets, for $522 Million
By Ricardo Lopez @rljourno

CREDIT: Tim Palen/Lionsgate
Toymaker Hasbro, Inc. announced on Tuesday said it would acquire Saban’s Power Rangers and other entertainment assets in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $522 million.

The transaction also includes other properties including “My Pet Monster,” “Popples,” “Julius Jr.,” “Luna Petunia” and “Treehouse Detectives.” Hasbro and Saban brands previously announced a $22 million master toy licensing agreement set to begin next year.

Hasbro will pay nearly $230 million in cash and issue $270 in Hasbro common stock for the assets. The sale is expected to during the second quarter of 2018.

The Power Rangers franchise, first started in 1993 by Haim Saban, is one of the longest-running live-action kids series. It has now spawned a number of movies including last year’s Lionsgate picture, which grossed $142 million globally.

“Power Rangers is an iconic brand built on a heritage of great storytelling and merchandising with tremendous upside potential when fully executed across Hasbro’s Brand Blueprint,” Brian Goldner, Hasbro chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Goldner said Hasbro sees opportunities for toys, games, consumer products, digital gaming and entertainment. Saban is expected to serve in a consulting role to Hasbro, Goldner added.

“Twenty-five years after launching Power Rangers, I believe the future for this brand has never been greater,” Saban said. “Hasbro’s leadership in innovation, storytelling and brand stewardship make it the perfect company to further develop the global reach and appeal of the Power Rangers property.”

Hasbro stock is down nearly 2% to $86.35. The deal comes as toymakers are adjusting to the fallout of the bankruptcy of Toys R Us, which is having major impact on companies such as Hasbro, Mattel, and other companies in the supply chain.

http://variety.com/2018/biz/news/hasbro-saban-power-rangers-1202793660/

 

[XYZpdq]

I anticipate minor schadenfreude as Bandai will eventually deliberately do something to fuck over Hasbro. I'm sure any kind of retro toy reproduction will be stymied.

iirc when Hasbro hyped up the toy partnership (with the option to buy the franchise) a few months back they showed a lot of stuff looking less awful than Bandai of America's stuff and a number of toys specifcally made of the Japanese version of stuff.
I don't know if they'd go out on that limb if they weren't confident they had a plan for Bandai not cooperating.
For all we know they may have gone to Bandai Japan and pointed out "look guys BoA sucks at everything and they make you X per year. We can make you Y per year."
Making a buck together got Sony and Disney to play nice with Spider-Man, who's to say what's possible.

 

[CWCchange]

The weird part is that Hasbro is firmly aligned with Takara/Tomy, the direct rival toy company to Bandai, the people who handle the color spandex hero toys in Japan.

International business rights and licenses are a mangled web. For example, The Coca-Cola Company owns Dr. Pepper in most Europe, Pepsico in Oceania, while here in its native U.S. is about to be owned by Keurig Green Mountain, which at one point was partially owned by the former.

 

[Echo_Ender]

I only really know Hasbro for the hatchetjob they did on the boardgaming industry and their MLP shit.

Is this a good thing or bad thing for the Rangerd franchise?

 

[XYZpdq]

I only really know Hasbro for the hatchetjob they did on the boardgaming industry and their MLP shit.

Is this a good thing or bad thing for the Rangerd franchise?

The nerd circles I run in have a solid "reply hazy ask again later".

Hasbro showed some very nice looking toys with stuff for kids as well as nerds, and Saban/BoA are really impressively shitty at how they do everything.

iirc Hasbro seems okay with mpreg multigender gay Transformers comics, but they threw a shitfit over a commie writing commie shit in GI Joe comics.

Hasbro makes some surprisingly palatable toy commercials like many of the Transformers cartoons, that weird Barbie that was on Hub, and the very long-lived MLP:FiM stuff, but they also make Bayformers and Ouija The Movie.

 

[RodgerDodger]

You’re all missing the Forrest for the trees. Hasbro has a “shared universe” that they want to exploit on film desperately. Power Rangers just joined the Transformers, Mask, GI Joe, Visionaries, Micronauts, Rom Spaceknight and GEM and the Holograms in Hasbro’s shared IP and world. Rumor is Hasbro is ending their comic relationship with IDW (which will end IDW) likely successors might be Boom! Or even Marvel (who would love to get Rom and Micronauts back).

Think of it! A spectacular Michael Bay Power Rangers vs Transformers vs GIJoe vs Gem and the Holograms movie. Just imagine how many explosions he could shoehorn in there!

 

[Munchingonfish]

Well lads and lasses, lets think things throo for a moment.

Hasbro are well known to have spent its entire history in television relying heavily...nay entirely on cheap and crappy animation for their IPs from jem and the holograms to GI joe to modern day MLP.

However since it's current behemoth of profit is still in the pony shit, I suspect that a Power Rangers animated series would start off with a markedly smaller budget, requiring it to go for the crudest and most bare bones animation that the market currently accepts.....

something that would require practically zero effort or time to create, yet would garner them a vast baying mob of autists who will eviscerate any and all criticism of the show...

something that in today's age of "woke marketing" would be proven to massively appeal to certain communities obsessed with children's animation....

Spoiler

(srsly, if the power rangers show is done in the style of steven universe I will literally weep with happiness given how much rage and/or fappery it will cause from all sides of the autist spectrum)

Thankfully kids don't seem interested in toys based on cancer like Steven Universe.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I'm actually surprised Digimon wasn't part of the deal, given that Hasbro's basically America's equivalent to Bandai. Probably is for the best, though.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Thankfully kids don't seem interested in toys based on cancer like Steven Universe.

I don’t think kids were actually in any way interested or entertained by Steven Universe. It’s fan base seemed to be aging hipster snowflakes suffering from gender confusion. Generally not a desirable group for advertisers as they don’t actually buy anything. (Unless they succeed in crowdfunding for it, such as a sandwich.)

 

[Red Hood]

I don’t think kids were actually in any way interested or entertained by Steven Universe. It’s fan base seemed to be aging hipster snowflakes suffering from gender confusion. Generally not a desirable group for advertisers as they don’t actually buy anything. (Unless they succeed in crowdfunding for it, such as a sandwich.)

Turns out the actual target audiences for these shows like the ones they're making the most of. No one cares that Tumblr loves Steven Universe or DCAU spergs bawww over their own childhood shows when the actual people that watch these cartoons want more Teen Titans Go.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Turns out the actual target audiences for these shows like the ones they're making the most of. No one cares that Tumblr loves Steven Universe or DCAU spergs bawww over their own childhood shows when the actual people that watch these cartoons want more Teen Titans Go.

Teen Titans Go is the perfect example. Originally it was Teen Titans. An older targeted show in the same vein as the DCAU. It had a huge adult hipster following, but kids didn’t show up. So it got cancelled in favor of Teen Titans Go, which the target audience of preteens adore.

 

[Munchingonfish]

Teen Titans Go is the perfect example. Originally it was Teen Titans. An older targeted show in the same vein as the DCAU. It had a huge adult hipster following, but kids didn’t show up. So it got cancelled in favor of Teen Titans Go, which the target audience of preteens adore.

DCAU autists hated the original Teen Titans because of its anime cutaway gags. They probably looked at it the same way original Teen Titans autists look at Go. Maybe you're thinking of Young Justice.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

Hasbro bought the rights for disney princess dolls and they're ugly now. Can't imagine how the power rangers will look.

Like OPL dressed as the Pink Ranger.

Go, Go, Obese, transvestite, millennial power-ranger!
Comes with a detachable taint and its own Patreon.

 

[Done]

I'm actually surprised Digimon wasn't part of the deal, given that Hasbro's basically America's equivalent to Bandai. Probably is for the best, though.

Isn't Digimon a purely Bandai thing? I don't think they would be willing to sell it to Hasbro.

DCAU autists hated the original Teen Titans because of its anime cutaway gags. They probably looked at it the same way original Teen Titans autists look at Go. Maybe you're thinking of Young Justice.

Young Justice is actually coming back.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

R.I.P. Bandai of America, that was your only franchise anybody except neckbeards gave a shit about.

They signed their own death warrant with the shit they pumped out for the toyline.

I'm just hoping Hasbro isn't as shit as BoA was in the twilight years (pun not intended).

 

[PantsFreeZone]

Interesting.

I wonder if this is tied into the financial assreaming Hasbro has been taking from all the new Star Wars toys still left on the shelves.

 

[Wesley Willis]

The biggest toy retailer is dead, so let's invest in toy companies. Are you Allan Greenspan or something?

 

[ShittyRecolor]

You’re all missing the Forrest for the trees. Hasbro has a “shared universe” that they want to exploit on film desperately. Power Rangers just joined the Transformers, Mask, GI Joe, Visionaries, Micronauts, Rom Spaceknight and GEM and the Holograms in Hasbro’s shared IP and world. Rumor is Hasbro is ending their comic relationship with IDW (which will end IDW) likely successors might be Boom! Or even Marvel (who would love to get Rom and Micronauts back).

Think of it! A spectacular Michael Bay Power Rangers vs Transformers vs GIJoe vs Gem and the Holograms movie. Just imagine how many explosions he could shoehorn in there!

Huh, most people I've heard talking about it speculate Boom! losing the licence to PR to IDW, but the opposite of it would be pretty cool, especially considering how crappy TF comics have become within the last few years and how much good I keep hearing of the current Power Rangers comics.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Huh, most people I've heard talking about it speculate Boom! losing the licence to PR to IDW, but the opposite of it would be pretty cool, especially considering how crappy TF comics have become within the last few years and how much good I keep hearing of the current Power Rangers comics.

IDW’s CEO got shit canned about a month ago for lying to Hasbro and not following their wishes by firing Aubrey Siterson (I think he has his own thread here) following the massive brand damage Sitterson did to G I Joe. The largest G I Joe fan communities were contacting Hasbro and calling for boycotts. IDW’s contract is up at the end of Summer. They have a big Transformers “end of the universe” finale story arc going on. Indications are Hasbro has absolutely had it with IDW. Between Sitterson G I a Joe damage to IDW handing a Transformers book to violent troon psychopath Mags Vissagio (putting the “Trans” in Transformers!) causing much outrage for the horribleness. Boom’s PR stuff has been quite good. Stunning cover art, good interior art, decent stories. Hasn’t sought to replace the paying fans and customers with new better more woke ones (that don’t actually buy comics).

 

[Keine]

The biggest toy retailer is dead, so let's invest in toy companies. Are you Allan Greenspan or something?

Big box retailers like Walmart and Target have substantial toy sections still, at least.

As far as what Hasbro does with the series, I can’t imagine an animated series would be cheaper than the current format of cutting up original Japanese footage from super sentai series and adding in bits of American actors and dubbing.

 

[WhimsicalTrolli]

6 years later Power Rangers got killed off because the lightning collection didn't hit the threshold of sales, 3 pitched reboots were got canned (constantly pushing for a female red is literally all hasbro got) & partially selling the toy license to playmates with mighty morphin toyline.