Quick note of Hasbro's handling of G5 in 2024

[Starlight Serenade 3,466]

 FYI - I've been mostly out of the loop the past several months on most of the MLP and Hasbro news, so I decided to do some catching up on their public posts and SEC filings of the past year, as I had some time this Sunday morning.

I have a short summary at the bottom of this post as I understand this is a bit long.

First, I recall this LinkedIn post from their Global Brand Manager last year when they announced that it was the "final chapter" of MYM, just pulled it up via LinkedIn in spoilers below:

 

Spoiler

 

 

What is very interesting though is when I was checking this same executive's recent LinkedIn feed, I actually found this post and saw that during the past year, Hasbro has been terminating a lot of employees throughout the past year, which matches the info on the Form 8-K that I linked in spoilers too:

 

Spoiler

Form 8-K, dated December 9, 2023: https://investor.hasbro.com/static-files/cfcc828c-f205-47af-938c-795f10b5fbcf

 

In their most recently filed Form 8-K, dated October 24, 2024, they provided some updates on things:  https://investor.hasbro.com/node/36886/html
 

MLP is only mentioned on the most recent Form 8-K and Form 10-Q as they had growth in licensed consumer products, here's a direct quote:

"PORTFOLIO BRANDS: Portfolio Brands net revenues decreased $21.0 million, or 12%, in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the third quarter of 2023. Lower net revenues from POWER RANGERS, BABY ALIVE, GI JOE and PJ MASKS products were partially offset by revenue contributions from MY LITTLE PONY trading card products."

 

 

Below are some interesting quotes regarding Hasbro's television and film business from their Form 10-Q, filed October 31, 2024:

Source: https://investor.hasbro.com/node/36906/html

 

Spoiler

Unsatisfied performance obligations

Unsatisfied performance obligations relate primarily to in-production television content to be delivered in the future under existing agreements with partnering content providers such as broadcasters, distributors, television networks and subscription video on demand services. As of September 29, 2024, unrecognized revenue attributable to unsatisfied performance obligations expected to be recognized in the future was $2.7 million. Of this amount, we expect to recognize $0.6 million in the remainder of 2024 and $2.1 million in 2025. These amounts include only fixed consideration.

 

(3) Sale of Non-Core Entertainment One Film and TV Business

 

 

On December 27, 2023, the Company completed the sale of its Entertainment One film and television business ("eOne Film and TV") to Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. and Lions Gate International Motion Pictures S.à.r.l (collectively "Lionsgate"), pursuant to the terms of an Equity Purchase Agreement dated August 3, 2023, among Hasbro and Lionsgate. The Company sold eOne Film and TV for a sales price of $375.0 million in cash, subject to the satisfaction of customary net working capital closing conditions and holdbacks for certain retained liabilities, plus the assumption by Lionsgate of production financing loans. During the nine months ended September 29, 2024, the Company recorded a $24.4 million expense in Loss on disposal of business on the Consolidated Statements of Operations associated with certain purchase price and related adjustments.

 

The Company recorded a pre-tax non-cash charge of $539.0 million within Loss on disposal of business on the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2023, of which $473.0 million was recorded during the three and nine months ended October 1, 2023. The Company also recorded pre-tax cash transaction expenses of $35.1 million within Selling, distribution and administration expense on the Consolidated Statements of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2023. See Note 3 of the Company's 2023 Annual Report for further detail of the Company's sale of the eOne Film and TV business.

 

The Company determined that the non-core eOne Film and TV business met the criteria to be classified as held for sale at October 1, 2023, but did not meet the criteria to be classified as discontinued operations. As a result, the related assets and liabilities were included in the separate assets and liabilities held-for-sale line items of the asset and liability sections of the consolidated balance sheets.

 

 

 

Short Summary:

 

Essentially throughout 2024, Hasbro drastically reduced all of their involvement in the television and film production as they realigned their strategy to focus more on toy/game operations. With "unsatisfied performance obligations" following the sale of Entertainment One in late 2023, they were limiting their television content production for a new shift in business strategy in 2024. This actually helps explain why they are using an "asset light strategy" as well, basically limiting ownership of physical assets but focusing more on licensing/distribution, which is why they outsourced production of TYT and MYM. This would mean that they could adapt to new market changes much more faster and efficiently,  however that meant uncertainty for their products and projects. Hasbro probably cancelled TYT and MYM as part of their shift in business strategy towards digital gaming and Wizards of The Coast based on the information on these reports.

 

For 2025, it looks like they are shifting focus on more merchandising/product opportunities with MLP rather than new animated content. Though that's not to say that they are not working on something new as on a magazine article published from last September, states that they are planning a "brand evolution", source linked below:

 

Source: https://issuu.com/maxpublishing/docs/hasbro_2024/12

 

I really hope I'm wrong, but based on all this information as of writing - it seems that we may not receive any news for a new show/gen until probably later this year or heck, maybe even next year!

 

I think we will have a better idea when the next set of public announcements and reports arrive within the next month or so.

 

What do you think? Please let me know if I missed anything.

[Snow 7,139]

I've not been following this sort of thing very much but I am under the impression that Hasbro has been burned by poor returns on their recently released movies and such, which presumably has scared them off media releases for the time being?

Edited 1 hour ago by Snow
Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy

[Rafa Stary 3,245]

I think it's all correct, thanks for sharing this, it was stuff like this that was missing for a thread I wrote a few days ago. I think it could be one of the reasons why they didn't give the green light to that new show concept from 2024, and why we're not getting any new in 2025 (yet). Though, their plans can change all the time and we don't know what to expect from it. In 2023 they said that TyT would continue for 2 more years, and now in 2024 theu said that in 2025 they would be focusing in G1 / Retro MLP for merchandise, and I'm still not seeing anything from these plans (but February just started, so let's wait)

I belive with "brand evolution" they referr to making the IP more mainstream ~☆

15 minutes ago, Snow said:

I've not been following this sort of thing very much but I am under the impression that Hasbro has been burned by poor returns on their recently released movies and such, which presumably has scared them off media releases for the time being?

Could be, though they are already working in the next Transformers show ~☆