The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department have cleared the way for toy manufacturer Hasbro to take a 50% stake, worth some $300 million, in the new joint venture Discovery Kids channel.
Discovery plans to team with Hasbro to populate Discovery Kids with programming based on Hasbro toys, including My Little Pony, Tonka, and Transformers, as well as games Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.
The FTC Wednesday issued an early termination notice of its competitive review of the deal.
The deal was required to be submitted for Justice and FTC pre-merger approval per a standard Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review for potential anti-competitive harm. There is a set waiting period before the transaction can proceed, but the parties can request that the waiting period be terminated early. That request was granted Tuesday.
That means neither the FTC or the Justice Department plan to file suit to block or condition the deal.
