Thursday September 30, 9:32 am Eastern Time

Company Press Release

Hasbro Forms Business Sector Designed to Leverage Company's Intellectual Properties

The Hasbro Properties Group Will Focus on Both Current and Untapped Entertainment Platforms

PAWTUCKET, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 1999-- Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS - news) has formed the Hasbro Properties Group (HPG) business sector, which has been created to maximize the Company's vast intellectual properties in a wide-range of entertainment-based categories. HPG initiatives include a coordinated global licensing program, children's and adult broadcast programming, and its recently established publishing arm.

The Hasbro Properties Group will report to Willa Perlman, the sector's general manager. Hasbro Properties Group will consist of licensing, visual entertainment (television, movies and home video), publishing; live entertainment; and a small group of creative producers and artists who will serve as a Company ``fantasy factory,'' responsible for developing and enhancing the content of Hasbro's intellectual properties.

``Hasbro continues to evolve into a leading children's and family entertainment company, and the formation of the Hasbro Properties Group is designed to convert our brands - creatively and profitably--into additional forms of entertainment,'' said Herb Baum, Hasbro's President and Chief Operating Officer.

``Hasbro owns a powerful portfolio of marketable properties, many of which are candidates for broad expansion outside of traditional toys and games,'' added Ms. Perlman.

According to Ms. Perlman, HPG is already working toward meeting its mission on a variety of fronts.

The recently formed ``fantasy factory'' group will lead the creative process in developing intellectual properties that will be shaped into a wide-range of media and product in various entertainment platforms.

HPG's integrated licensing and promotions arm - 3D Licensing & Promotions, Worldwide - will help the Company extend key intellectual properties through licensing, promotions and live entertainment in a highly coordinated fashion. The group's licensing efforts are focused on licensing out Hasbro brands in key merchandise categories as an adjunct to the Company's primary toy and game lines on a worldwide basis. Currently, the Company's Furby®, Action Man®, Monopoly® and Tonka® brands are four key properties that are thriving in a variety of licensing categories.

Hasbro Live Entertainment's mission is to extend Hasbro brands and intellectual properties to theme parks, theater, and location-based entertainment venues. The group is currently in discussion with a leading theatrical producer to stage a Hasbro-created story on Broadway in Spring, 2001.

HPG's Visual Entertainment Group will be responsible for extending Hasbro intellectual properties into movies, television, and home video. According to Ms. Perlman, the group is currently in negotiation for animated series linked to the Company's Action Man and Centipede(TM) brands. Beast Machines - a new CGI-based television series building on the success of the Transformers(TM) Beast Wars® programming - debuted on Fox Kids earlier this month.

The newly-formed Hasbro Publishing Group has been established to develop broad-based publishing programs for Hasbro brands and intellectual properties - such as Furby, Playskool® and Tonka - and to place programs with appropriate publishing partners in various channels of sale via licensed and/or other partnership arrangements.

Hasbro is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of toys, games, interactive software, puzzles and infant products. Both internationally and in the U.S., its Playskool®, Kenner®, Tonka®, OddzOn®, Super Soaker®, Milton Bradley®, Parker Brothers®, Tiger(TM), Hasbro Interactive(TM) and Galoob® products, provide children and families with the highest quality and most recognizable toys and games in the world.


Contact:
     Hasbro, Inc.
     Gary Serby
     401-727-5582

Preserved here on Mystic Fortress' server to avoid a bad link in the furture.
Article is quoted from Yahoo News and is not edited in any way.
Back to Furby News
Back to Furby Main
Back to Mystic Fortress