Mattel Inc shares gained as much as 24 percent on a report that Hasbro Inc has discussed an acquisition, a deal that would unite the two largest US toymakers.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that Hasbro made a recent takeover approach, but the terms of a potential deal were not clear.
The report sent Mattel’s shares as high as US$18.10 in late trading. Mattel had been down 47 percent this year through Friday’s close.
Mattel takeover speculation surged last month after an analyst suggested that the company might be better off as an acquisition target. The merger talk followed a surprisingly sharp sales decline at Mattel last quarter. The toy company, which makes Barbie and Fisher-Price, suspended its dividend and escalated a cost-cutting push to cope with the slump.
Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, also blamed the bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us Inc for hurting sales, especially in North America.
Mattel and Hasbro declined to comment on the possible merger.
Bloomberg last year reported that Mattel and Hasbro have held merger discussions. The companies have held on-and-off-again talks about a deal, people familiar with the situation said at the time.
Since then, Mattel’s condition has worsened, making it a cheaper possible target. Mattel had a market valuation of about US$5 billion at Friday’s close, compared with more than US$11 billion for Hasbro, which is based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
A deal would amass a trove of household names, teaming up Mattel’s Hot Wheels and American Girl dolls with Hasbro’s Nerf and Monopoly.
Mattel has been pursuing a comeback plan under a new chief executive officer, Margo Georgiadis, who previously worked at Google. The company is still reeling from the loss of its Disney Princess franchise to Hasbro last year. In addition, sales of Barbie dolls, Mattel’s biggest product, have been uneven.
Mattel has been talking to its banking partners about alternative forms of financing, including an asset-backed loan. The company has US$250 million in bonds maturing in March.
“2017, in my view, is a reset year for Mattel,” Georgiadis said in an interview last month.
The Toys “R” Us bankruptcy in September dealt another blow to the industry, weighing on holiday sales prospects.
“We did have a real challenge with the timing of that bankruptcy,” Georgiadis said. “The whole industry felt the pressure.”
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last