It appears that merger talks between Hasbro, the nation’s second leading toymaker, and Dreamworks Animation have broken off.  The talks between the two entities appeared to make sense, given Hasbro’s desire for a more robust media presence, and Dreamworks Animation’s need for additional revenue streams (see "Hasbro Talking Merger"), but apparently the price that Dreamworks was seeking ($35 a share), which was leaked last week, was too high. 
 
According to The Hollywood Reporter, talks broke off Friday in the wake of published reports from Wall Street analysts that were critical of the $3 billion price that Dreamworks Animation was seeking, which certainly contributed to drops in Hasbro’s stock price of 4% on Thursday followed by a further 2% decline on Friday.  The stock drops were enough to spook Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who in spite of the potential of Dreamworks’ properties like Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, and Madagascar, pulled out of the talks on Friday.
 
There is always the potential that the talks could resume, especially if Dreamworks decides to lower the price, but it appears that the merger/acquisition deal is dead for now.