Canada’s eOne acquired by Lionsgate for $375m after four years under Hasbro
Studio group Lionsgate has completed its acquisition of Canada-based studio Entertainment One (eOne) for around US$375m, plus the assumption of production financing loans.
Jon Feltheimer
The deal brings eOne’s 6,500-title film and TV library, as well as its scripted and unscripted TV business, into the Lionsgate fold as the US-Canadian firm prepares to separate its studio business from its network and streamer Starz.
Series produced by eOne include US police procedural The Rookie for ABC, drama Yellowjackets for Showtime and the Discovery unscripted show Naked & Afraid.
The deal includes the film development rights to the Hasbro-owned Monopoly brand. It does not include kids’ franchise Peppa Pig, which drove a large portion of the US$3.8bn Hasbro paid for eOne in 2019.
The completion of the transaction comes at a crucial time for Lionsgate as it moves ahead with the long-planned separation of its studio business from Starz.
Less than two weeks ago, Lionsgate revealed that it will spin off its studio business by launching Lionsgate Studios through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Screaming Eagle Acquisition Corp.
Lionsgate Studios will consist of the company’s television studio, feature film group, its 18,000-title film and TV library, talent management firm 3 Arts and eOne.
The merger of Lionsgate’s studio business with Screaming Eagle is expected to close in the spring, with Lionsgate Studios then launching as a separate publicly traded company.
Lionsgate said the new company will have an enterprise value of US$4.6bn. Once the split is complete, Starz will operate as a separate publicly traded company and will continue to be owned by Lionsgate.
The completion of the deal, which was announced on December 27, came almost four years to the day after toy giant Hasbro completed its acquisition of eOne for US$3.8bn.
For both sides, the deal did not have the intended impact and the sale to Lionsgate marks the end of a turbulent four years for eOne.
The Hasbro-eOne deal was spearheaded by eOne founder, president and CEO Darren Throop and Hasbro’s late chairman and CEO Brian Goldner.
According to insiders, the integration of eOne was bumpy from the very beginning, and things worsened with Goldner’s passing in 2021 at the age of 58.
In August 2022, it was announced that Throop was exiting eOne and Hasbro officially put the company up for sale later that year. Several parties were reportedly in the mix to acquire eOne, including Throop, backed by a private equity firm, but Lionsgate emerged as the winner.
Ahead of the sale, eOne went through several rounds of lay-offs in 2023, while several key personnel also left the company, including president of global unscripted television Tara Long, president of film and television Steve Bertram and president of global television Michael Lombardo.
“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 on the completion of the deal.
“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.”
