Toy giant Hasbro has sold one of Ireland's largest animation studios, Boulder Media, to the Australian-based Princess Pictures.
Dublin-based Boulder Media’s animation portfolio includes work on Hasbro’s Transformers and My Little Pony franchises, along with TV shows such as Go Jetters and Danger Mouse.
New accounts for the multi award-winning Boulder Media Ltd show it declared three dividends last month with a cumulative total of €8.7m before the sale of Princess Pictures closed on 17th October.
The financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed.
On the deal, Boulder Media’s general manager Jenni MacNeaney told online US entertainment industry publication Deadline "this synergetic relationship opens up unique opportunities for our future slate and enables us to amplify our creative offering in the market".
She said: "It’s an exciting step forward in building the Boulder brand, one that values the great work we’ve produced over the last 22 years, while setting us up for future success."
Managing director of Princess Pictures, Emma Fitzsimmons, told Deadline "Boulder Media has an established reputation in kids’ animation production and we’re going to add a new focus: prime-time adult comedy production".
Hasbro purchased Boulder Media in 2016 and the new accounts show that Boulder Media last year recorded a 22% drop in pre-tax profits to €2m.
This followed revenues decreasing sharply by 38%, from €28.18m to €17.54m.
The accounts - signed off on 24th October - show that numbers employed by the business last year declined from 326 to 195; made up of 175 production staff, 18 administration staff and two management staff.
The directors for Boulder Media state that they are satisfied with the company’s performance for 2021 and "are confident that the company will continue to be profitable in the future".
Prior to the dividend payout last month, Boulder Media at the end of December last had accumulated profits of €9.45m.
The company’s cash funds last year more than doubled from €2.4m to €5m.
Separate figures provided by the Revenue Commissioners show that Boulder Media was active across a number of productions last year.
The figures show that the business was last year able to avail of corporate tax credits of between €1m and €2m for its Transformers BotBots; between €500,000 and €1m for My Pony Life Season 2 and between €500,000 and €1m for DC Superhero Girls Series 2.
In 2020, the firm availed of corporate tax credits of between €10m to €30m for My Little Pony.
The business last year recorded operating profits of €2.13m and interest payments of €132,634 reduced that to a pre-tax profit of €2m.
The company recorded post tax profits of €1.78m, after paying out corporation tax of €218,810.
