DreamWorks Animation is in talks with Hasbro to merge the toon studio with the toy maker, according to individuals familiar with the discussions, Variety can confirm. In another potential deal, DWA is considering selling a stake of AwesomenessTV to Hearst Publishing for $81.5 million.
The companies were unavailable or declined to comment. Deadline first reported the talks.
The discussions — as well as other potential investments in DreamWorks from Japan’s Softbank and China’s Alibaba — in recent months signal that DWA-chief Jeffrey Katzenberg is clearly looking for a partner with whom he can restructure a company that has recently struggled at the box office with a string of misses with “Rise of the Guardians,” “Turbo” and “Mr. Peabody & Sherman.” “How to Train Your Dragon 2? is one of its few hits of late. DWA’s next film is “The Penguins of Madagascar.”
The timing of the merger talks come a decade after DWA became a publicly traded studio, and as Katzenberg has been aggressive in expanding the house that “Shrek” built into other areas — including television, digital, consumer products, live entertainment — so that its bottomline doesn’t have to solely rely on the box office.
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