Mattel
On November 10, 2017, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that Hasbro, Inc. had made a takeover offer for Mattel, Inc. At the time, Mattel worth was $5 billion, while Hasbro was about $11 billion. On November 15, 2017, Reuters reported that Mattel rejected the offer.
Madeline (video game series)
The "Madeline" video game assets were passed around to various companies during the turn of the millennium. The Learning Company would be a subsidiary of Mattel's game division Mattel Interactive. After suffering significant losses, Mattel sold the assets of Mattel Interactive, including The Learning Company in 2000 at a loss to Gores Technology Group, a privately held international acquisition and management firm, for a share of what the firm could sell the assets for. In 2001, edutainment development company Riverdeep Group acquired the education assets of The Learning Company from Gores Technology Group for $40 million in stock, while assuming $20 million in liabilities as inter-company debt. By 2002, Encore Software, a privately held publisher of home entertainment and education, had acquired the exclusive publishing rights for the "Madeline" properties and re-released the software under its own brand name. In that same year, distribution company Navarre Corporation purchased Encore for $7 million in cash while acquiring $2.75 million in debt. Having worked with Encore since the company's inception in 1995, Navarre saw this as a "move to strengthen its position in the video game market." In 2006, Riverdeep acquired Houghton Mifflin, becoming Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. In 2007, Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group bought Harcourt Education assets from Reed Elsevier for $4 billion, with the resulting company called Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the current owner of the "Madeline" video game license while either Navarre Corporation holds the publishing rights or they reverted to HMH after the games went out of print. HMH has not attempted to resurrect the series, unlike other similarly acquired edutainment assets like Broderbund's Carmen Sandiego, which saw its latest release in 2015.