Hasbro makes the Transformers line of toys.
US toymaker Hasbro has ended talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the film studio which produced the blockbuster series Shrek. The New York Times said on Saturday that the talks ended after Hasbro shares nose-dived last week amid rumours of the potential merger.
The daily also cited negative reaction from the
Walt Disney Company, which makes up about 30 per cent 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 last week.
DreamWorks Animation is the largest independent animation studio in Hollywood. It was spun off in 2004 from DreamWorks Studios, founded by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
It posts yearly revenue of about US$700 million ($885 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 hits.
