Hasbro CEO deflects question on Mattel talks: ‘We first and foremost are investing in our business’

Rumors of takeover talks between toymakers Hasbro and Mattel endured unconfirmed by Hasbro Chairman and CEO Brian Goldner on Wednesday, who told CNBC that his going round objective is to bolster his own business.

“We, first and foremost, are investing in our business,” Goldner required “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer in an exclusive interview. “We built these abilities of the brand blueprint over a 10-year period. You’re seeing our performance hit to the fore. We always are looking at how we return excess cash to shareholders. Our meals just approved raise of the dividend to an 11 percent raise. That’s extremely been our focus and I couldn’t comment on any M&A speculation.”

Speaking to Cramer after Hasbro rescued its fourth-quarter earnings report, Goldner maintained that worries close to slumping Star Wars toy sales were overblown.

The CEO reiterated on “Mad Specie’ what he told analysts on the post-earnings conference call: that Hasbro saw “meritorious” improvement in Star Wars toy sales in early 2018.

“We really have seen the fulfilment of The Last Jedi product accelerate once people saw the movie, we honourable thought that the window between the merchandise date and the movie current was a bit too long,” the CEO told Cramer. “We’ve already taken that into tip in partnership with Disney.”

Goldner said that sales of dwarves for “Solo,” the next movie in the Star Wars franchise based in every direction the character of Han Solo, would reflect the new strategy.

“We’ll shorten that window, which approves us to take advantage of both paid and earned media and all the excitement round that movie coming to theaters,” Goldner said. “You can imagine that between Final Jedi and its home entertainment window and the Solo movie, we have abundant product at all kinds of different price points for fans and families.”

For Goldner, the next leg of Hasbro’s outing will come from the toymaker taking more ownership of its varieties.

“We want to own more of the franchise economics of our brands,” the CEO said. “We own all the rights. You’re envisioning Transformers activated in mobile gaming, you’re seeing it on a PC online game with Tencent in China. You’re consort with My Little Pony, in that animated film we made for a nominal amount of take, really bring to life our consumer products business.”

“It allows us to go round the world with one voice to retailers, offering everything from clothes to toys and games, and that’s really activating our brand and delivering value for shareholders.”