Jakks Pacific receives takeover bid from Oaktree Capital
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Jakks Pacific Inc., the Malibu toy maker, has received a $544-million takeover bid from Oaktree Capital Management after the Los Angeles buyout firm failed to work out a friendly deal with the company.
In a letter to Jakks’ board Tuesday, Oaktree made an offer to take Jakks private for $20 a share in cash, a 25% premium on the toy maker’s closing stock price of $16 that day. The company said it had been trying to work out a deal with the company since March; Oaktree Funds owns about 4.9% of Jakks already, according to the Associated Press.
Jakks’ Chief Executive Stephen Berman responded to the investment firm in a letter Wednesday, saying the company would ‘carefully consider your indication of interest ... and will continue to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.’
Jakks, one of the top five U.S. toy companies, designs and markets action figures, electronics, dolls, costumes and stuffed animals and is a licensee of major brands including Disney, Nickelodeon, Cabbage Patch Kids, Hello Kitty and Pokemon. It was founded in 1995 and went public a year later.
In an interview with The Times last week, Chief Financial Officer Joel Bennett said the company had 725 employees, 400 of them in the U.S. Jakks last year reported revenue of $748 million.
A call to a Jakks spokeswoman was not returned early Wednesday. Shares of Jakks rose $3.78, or 23.6%, to $19.78 at 9 a.m. Pacific time.
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-- Andrea Chang
