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Report: Hasbro Ends Bid to Take over DreamWorks

U.S. toymaker Hasbro has ended talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the film studio which produced the blockbuster series "Shrek," the New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper said the talks ended after Hasbro shares nose-dived this week amid rumors of the potential merger.

The daily also cited negative reaction from the Walt Disney Company, which makes up about 30 percent of Hasbro's business through product tie-ins for "Star Wars," Marvel superheroes and other toy lines.

Hasbro, known for such toys as Transformers and My Little Pony as well as board games like Monopoly, had planned to pay a mix of cash and stock, according to news reports earlier this week.

DreamWorks Animation is the largest independent animation studio in Hollywood.

The company was spun off in 2004 from DreamWorks Studios, founded by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

It posts yearly revenue of about $700 million and makes just a few films a year. But some of them, such as the "Shrek" series, "Kung Fu Panda" and "Dragon," have been huge box office hits.

In September the studio held talks with another prospective buyer, Japanese telecoms company SoftBank, but they did not result in an agreement.

Source: Agence France Presse


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