Hasbro reportedly makes a takeover bid for struggling rival Mattel
November 11, 2017 by admin
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Hasbro Inc. reportedly made an offer to buy beleaguered rival Mattel Inc., the latest chapter in the long-running speculation that the two major U.S. toy makers would join forces.
Hasbro approached El Segundo-based Mattel recently with a takeover offer but terms of the proposal were not available, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.
Representatives for Hasbro and Mattel declined comment on the report, saying they don’t respond to speculation.
Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, R.I., makes toys products such as Transformers, G.I. Joe figures, My Little Pony, Nerf and Play-Doh, as well as games such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Twister. It also has rights to valuable entertainment franchises such as “Star Wars.”
Mattel’s brands include the iconic Barbie doll, Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, Fisher-Price toys and American Girl dolls.
Mattel has struggled with slumping sales despite hiring a new chief executive early this year, Margo Georgiadis, a former Google executive.
Mattel in late October reported a 14% drop in its third-quarter sales, excluding the effect of currency fluctuations, and suspended its quarterly dividend. It blamed some of the decline on the recent bankruptcy filing of retailer Toys R Us Inc.
That prompted SP Global Ratings to lower its ratings on Mattel’s corporate debt, and led one analyst to say that Mattel might be better off as a takeover target.
“We believe its brands and manufacturing footprint could be worth more than $10 billion in their current state,” analyst Gerrick Johnson of BMO Capital Markets said in a note to clients. “Thus, the company could have value to a financial, industry or entertainment conglomerate buyer.”
Mattel’s market value is $5 billion after the stock plunged 47% so far this year. The stock jumped 5% Friday to close at $14.62 a share.
Hasbro has a total market value of $11.4 billion, and its stock is up nearly 18% this year. Hasbro closed at $91.45 a share, up 3%, on Friday.
A similar rumor that Hasbro and Mattel were holding merger talks appeared in media reports in early 2016, and such speculation repeatedly has surfaced and then faded in the two decades since Hasbro resisted a formal $5.2-billion purchase bid from Mattel.
Hasbro contended at the time that a deal might be blocked by federal regulators on antitrust grounds, and Mattel abandoned its offer in early 1996.
james.peltz@latimes.com
Twitter: @PeltzLATimes
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Marine Drill Instructor Gets 10 Years for Tormenting Recruits
November 11, 2017 by admin
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Abusive drill instructors have long been stock characters in books and movies like “Full Metal Jacket.” But that 1987 film was set during the Vietnam War, and the Felix trial shows that since then the Marines have drawn clearer lines between what instructors can and cannot do, said Michael Hanzel, a former Navy lawyer who attended the proceedings at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“This generation now, there’s things that I think that we’re much more focused on. In particular, in this trial, it’s calling people names based on their religion and targeting people based on their religion,” said Mr. Hanzel, now a lawyer in private practice specializing in military law. “I don’t think anyone would say that was acceptable ever, but it probably was not prosecuted in the past the way it would be now.”
The charges against Sergeant Felix included commanding recruits to choke one another; ordering them to drink chocolate milk and then training them until they vomited; and punching recruits in the face or kicking them to the ground.
Credit
Stephen Morton for The New York Times
“He wasn’t making Marines. He was breaking Marines,” Lt. Col. John Norman, a prosecutor, told the jury on Wednesday. He called Sergeant Felix a bully who heaped special abuse on three Muslim recruits because of their faith.
One of them, Raheel Siddiqui, 20, a Pakistani-American from Taylor, Mich., hurled himself to his death after what the jury decided was mistreatment by Sergeant Felix that included slapping Mr. Siddiqui and calling him a terrorist. Mr. Siddiqui’s family sued the Marine Corps last month for $100 million.
The government did not charge Sergeant Felix with any crime directly related to Mr. Siddiqui’s death. The judge, Lt. Col. Michael Libretto, did not allow testimony about whether Sergeant Felix’s actions were responsible for the recruit’s suicide.
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Sergeant Felix also was convicted of ordering Lance Cpl. Ameer Bourmeche into a dryer, which then was turned on as Felix demanded, “Are you still Muslim?” Lance Corporal Bourmeche testified that he twice affirmed his faith and that Sergeant Felix and another drill instructor twice sent him for a bruising, scorching tumble inside the machine.
After a third spin, Lance Corporal Bourmeche said, he feared for his life and renounced his religion. The drill instructors then let him out, he said.
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Sergeant Felix was found guilty as well of ordering Lance Corporal Bourmeche to simulate chopping off the head of a fellow Marine while reciting “God is great” in Arabic.
The jury decided Sergeant Felix also ordered Rekan Hawez, a native of Iraqi Kurdistan, to climb into the dryer. The machine was never turned on.
Sergeant Felix was convicted, too, of rousing nearly two dozen recruits from their sleep, ordering them to lie on the floor, and then walking on them along with two other drill instructors.
In a closing statement on Wednesday, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Bridges, a defense lawyer, said the government unfairly fashioned contradictory witness accounts into a case against the brawny drill instructor who called all recruits “terrorist.”
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