Following the Hasbro acquisition of the majority of their assets, including Power Rangers, Saban Brands will cease operations on July 2nd, 2018.
First reported by the Los Angeles Business Journal, Saban Brands, currently based in Century City, California, will layoff its sixty employees to make way for toymaker, Hasbro. The news came in the form of a letter from Saban Brands lawyer, Jackson Lewis. Dated May 1st (the day the Hasbro acquisition was announced), the Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification letter outlined the listed layoffs including Saban’s creative director, financial analyst and director of accounting, amongst others. Fifty-one of the sixty layoffs will happen on July 2nd, with the others coming soon afterwards.
Since news of the Hasbro acquisition broke, fans and supporters of the Power Rangers brand had shared concerns for the fate of Saban Brands staff. The most notable question mark surrounds Director of Global Consumer Products, Jason Bischoff, who, since joining Saban, had served as a conduit between Saban Brands and the Power Rangers community. It is not yet known whether Hasbro will employ any of the sixty Saban Brands employees or whether Saban Brands’ parent company, Saban Capital Group, will transfer any employees into its remit.
This is truly the beginning of the end of the Saban Brands era. What do you think of the news? Are you excited for the Hasbro takeover? Let us know in the comments!
[Source: Los Angeles Business Journal]