eOne’s ex-CEO Darren Throop emerges as potential buyer as Hasbro sale reaches final stages

Darren Throop

Entertainment One (eOne)’s recently departed CEO & founder Darren Throop has emerged as a potential buyer of the Yellowjackets production-distribution firm.

eOne was put on the block by toy manufacturer Hasbro last year, just three years after it acquired the TV and film company for $4bn, with Legendary and Lionsgate among those still interested.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has also been mooted as a potential suitor and it has now emerged that Throop is in talks with the Luxembourg-based outfit in a bid to secure financing to support a bid.

Throop stepped down from eOne after 20 years with the firm when his contract expired at the end of last year, having been a key player in founding the company.

He started out by launching record store chain Urban Sound Exchange, before leading the acquisition of ROW Entertainment and taking it public, with the firm eventually rebranding as eOne before its 2019 acquisition by Hasbro.

The deal handed the toy firm a raft of IP ranging from Naked & Afraid to Peppa Pig, but it had limited success in flipping toy brands into screen IP. Amazon Freevee ordered a family competition special, Play-Doh Squished, last year, and a scripted TV series based around the classic board game Risk was revealed in January 2021.

More recently, the toy firm faced pressure from investors to sell the TV and film in order to cut debts. Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s former CEO who died in 2021, had been a key advocate for the deal, but his successor Chris Cocks is now looking to build up its digital games portfolio instead.

JP Morgan and Centerview Partners are overseeing the sale, which will likely see some IP such as Peppa Pig remaining with Hasbro.

eOne’s library stretches to around 6,500 titles and includes a TV division, with others shows including The Rookie franchise and The Woman King. It also operates in film.