Mattel acquires Mega Brands

Well, I know some will blame me for posting this here, but the information is important because it risks redistributing the cards significantly in the construction toy market: Mattel, world leader in the toy industry , has just acquired Mega Brands, the Canadian maker of MEGA BLOKS toys for a whopping $ 460 million.

Mega Brands is currently the number two player globally in the long list of construction toy manufacturers and Mattel clearly intends to ride the current craze for these toys that LEGO is promoting all over the place.

By buying Mega Brands, Mattel is therefore appropriating very popular licenses such as Skylanders, Halo, Call of Duty, Power Rangers or even Assasin's Creed. For its part, Mega Brands, which posted sales of modestly reaching $ 405 million in 2013 ($ 3,4 billion for LEGO over the same period) will benefit from Mattel's sales and marketing strike force.

There is no doubt that Mattel intends to compete directly with LEGO in the construction toys market which continues to grow despite the ambient gloom in the toy market. The acquisition of Mega Brands is a smart shortcut to rapidly gaining market share in this sector. A little competition doesn't hurt ...

The official press release can be found at this address (PDF).