Lionsgate has closed its acquisition of eOne from Hasbro, the company announced Wednesday. The deal, initially revealed at the beginning of August, includes $375 million in cash and the rest in acquired debt. Lionsgate will assume production financing loans for ongoing projects, and the studio approximated the total value of the transaction to be $500 million in August.
Lionsgate will assume ownership of 6,500 films and TV shows from eOne, as well as extend their portfolio of brands and franchises while expanding into Canada and the UK. eOne produces various shows, including ABC’s “The Rookie,” the Showtime series “Yellowjackets” and the Discovery series “Naked & Afraid.” The company will also receive the film development rights to Hasbro’s “Monopoly” game series.
“The eOne acquisition concludes a busy year in which we continued to execute our strategy of strengthening our studio business as we prepare for the separation of Lionsgate and Starz into pure play standalone companies,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer in a statement. “As we’ve conducted our integration planning, our analysis has reaffirmed our conviction that eOne will be a valuable and highly accretive addition to our business. We are pleased to welcome eOne’s talented group of employees to our Lionsgate family.”
This looks to be a large boon for all involved. Hasbro started shopping eOne back in November of 2022. The sale was part of a series of cost-cutting measures by the company that included layoffs of 20% of its staff.
“The acquisition of eOne checks off all the boxes in areas that play to our core strengths,” Feltheimer said in August. “It will be immediately and highly accretive, adds a world-class library with thousands of properties, strengthens our scripted and unscripted television business and continues to expand our presence in Canada and the UK.”
“The deal is the culmination of our long-standing relationship with the immensely talented team at eOne, and it continues to build our position as one of the world’s leading independent content platforms with a stockpile of great intellectual properties and a unique, non-replicable portfolio of assets,” he added.
Hasbro initially bought eOne in 2019 in a $3.8 billion all-cash deal, giving it access to a cache of highly rated brands, including “Peppa Pig” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog.”
Leave a Reply