Entertainment One backed ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Entertainment One has reduce round 20 % of its workforce as guardian Hasbro implements its value discount plan on the toy maker.

“This workforce reduction is part of the ongoing transformational changes Hasbro announced in January to substantially reduce costs and increase growth rates and profitability,” Hasbro spokesperson Roberta Thomson instructed The Hollywood Reporter in an announcement on Thursday.

In Jan. 2023, Hasbro mentioned it might reduce its workforce by 15 %, or 1,000 employees. The vital layoffs had been half of a bigger restructuring and cost-savings effort underway, with the corporate having already put its TV and movie division Entertainment One up for sale. (The layoffs that had been disclosed on Thursday had been a part of the January plan.)

Sources on the toy maker say the cost-cutting at eOne is just not associated to the deliberate sale of movie and TV unit. Hasbro acquired the Toronto-based studio in 2019, which homes most of its leisure property and introduced its intention to promote it in mid-November 2022.

That course of was jump-started by eOne founder Darren Throop announcing he would end out his employment contract after which depart the corporate on the finish 2022. As a part of the deliberate sale, Hasbro expects to retain key property from eOne such because the Peppa Pig, Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons manufacturers. 

Throop has been in talks to amass the movie and TV manufacturing and distribution unit again from Hasbro. The firm retained J.P. Morgan and Centerview Partners to help with the sale course of.

Hasbro initially acquired eOne to develop the toy maker right into a media contender because it mixed the indie studio’s movie and TV unit with its personal. The thought to grow to be a Hollywood producer à la Marvel Studios was spearheaded by former CEO Brian Goldner, who died in October 2021.

The pandemic disrupted that media technique, with a Hollywood manufacturing shutdown and delays in content material deliveries because the business reopened. Hasbro has now turned its focus to turning into a digital gaming powerhouse after heading off a proxy battle with an activist investor, Alta Fox Capital Management.