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UK regulator investigating Hasbro’s acquisition of EntertainmentOne
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 25 November 2019
The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority last week announced that it is investigating the acquisition of Canadian content company EntertainmentOne by US toy maker Hasbro.
When announcing its big deal to buy EntertainmentOne back in August, Hasbro unsurprisingly bigged up the toy-friendly children’s TV franchises that would come with the acquisition. But the EntertainmentOne company has an assortment of other interests across the wider entertainment business, including owning various record labels, music libraries and artist management agencies.
The deal is subject to regulator approval in various countries, but has already crossed key hurdles in the US, Canada and Germany. However, the CMA said last week that it was now welcoming submissions from third parties regarding the deal and whether it raised any competition law concerns in the UK.
The British regulator said in a statement that it was currently considering whether the EntertainmentOne deal “will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 and, if so, whether the creation of that situation may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services”.
The CMA will announce whether a more thorough second phase investigation will be required by 21 Jan next year.
