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Hasbro to Sell Entertainment One's TV/Film Business to Lionsgate

Entertainment One (eOne) announced on Thursday that Hasbro has reached an agreement to sell eOne's film and television business to Lionsgate for about US$500 million, consisting of US$375 million in cash and production financing loans. Hasbro and Lionsgate's board of directors have approved the transaction. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

The sale will include employees, a content library of about 6,500 titles, active productions for non-Hasbro owned IP, the eOne unscripted business, and Hasbro's interest in eOne's Canadian film and television business.

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks stated that the sale "fully aligns" with the company's strategy. He added that the company looks forward to working with Lionsgate, including on a movie adaptation of Monopoly.

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer stated that the deal "checks off all the boxes in areas that play to our core strengths."

eOne produced the Transformers: BotBots animated action-comedy series. The series debuted on Netflix in March 2022. Netflix ordered the 20-episode series in early 2021 from eOne. BotBots are a sub-brand of Hasbro's Transformers robot toys that launched in 2018.

In 2012, eOne acquired worldwide rights to a television series based on Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack medical suspense manga. However, the company did not produce a series. In 2018, eOne was reportedly planning to develop, produce, and finance a Street Fighter: World Warrior television series. Again, the company never ended up producing such a title.

Sources: eOne, Deadline (Max Goldbart), Variety (Angelique Jackson, Ellise Shafer)