Does Hasbro buy Equestria Daily?

CMC Scootaloo
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Not much to say here….. Apparently, Hasbro wants to buy EQD to use it as official news site and, apparently, Sethisto wants to take the offer, too, to swim in money afterwards.  
I just let the picture speak for itself. I just saw it here, but it got pulled with the reasoning it should be put into the forums, which is rather questionable, such a thing should be brought to the attention of the community on as broad a scale as possible.  
Anyway, here’s the picture:
 
 
full
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
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Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
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@Background Pony #AABE
 
Since EQD went to Patreon in January 2016, Sethisto made it increasingly apparent that his only motivation to still run EQD is the money he earns with it.  
It might be a rumor, but I wouldn’t cast it aside that quickly either. Sethisto would agree to such a deal.
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
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Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
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@Splinter
 
Nothing wrong about that. The problem is more that the money is the only motivation he has these days.  
He doesn’t really care about the site itself or the fandom anymore, which shows in tons of demotivated statements in posts, fanwork that gets ignored when you send it to the submit address, awkward mistakes and heavy errors that, in some cases, don’t even get corrected by him.  
He keeps running the site because it brings him money since the Patreon, but the quality of EQD suffers from that, cause he doesn’t really have the drive and the passion anymore.
 
With that said, I’m tired of the “How dare he earns money” argument. If you get so disinterested in running your own site that you damage it with your lack of motivation, it’s time to give it to people who still have the passion for the show and the fandom to run it properly.
Joey
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@CMC Scootaloo  
I gotta agree that this seems more like some random rumor than something that’s probably occurring:
 
  1. The reason companies buy sites is to generate revenue. Equestria Daily serves a very niche market that only earns money on ad revenue, and they don’t even really own much in terms of assets either. It just seems unlikely that the site would ever generate enough revenue for Hasbro to recuperate that kinda investment and then make a profit atop of it.
     
  2. $1m is a very generic number. Companies have complex formulas for determining an offer price. $1m is what you hear on TV fiction because it’s a big number, but companies rarely make offers at that specific value.
     
  3. That screenshot is old. It mentions the “upcoming” movie, which was several weeks ago. Small value acquisitions don’t typically take that long to occur.
     
  4. Again, that number is way too high. Remember Digg? That site was (and still is) way more popular than EqD, and appealed to a much broader audience. It only sold for $500k.
     
  5. If Hasbro did take ownership of EqD, than any fandom content EqD subsequently posts could be argued to be “officially endorsed” by Hasbro, which lawyers dislike for a variety of reasons. Conversely, fan content creators could then claim that Hasbro is using their content for brand promotion, which again, lawyers don’t like that.
     
    Now, it’s entirely possible that Hasbro may be discussing some kinda partnership or sponsorship with EqD, where they’d invest money in exchange for EqD promoting their content and “upholding their values and visions” while still remaining an independently owned and operated site. But buying and taking ownership? Highly unlikely
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Artist -

Scootaloo Fanclub Member
@Joey
 
I don’t have much to go by myself, the screenshots are really all I got. They do mention EQD staffers talking about it, though, so there’s gotta be some truth in this.  
Point 1 and Point 5 make sense, making it highly unlikely, I give you that. Though, such a sponsorship or partnership probably exists already.  
There have been a lot of developments this year that exactly fit to such a partnership with Hasbro, namely, two news related to the movie having gotten taken down by Hasbro’s request and because Sethisto complied, the fairly recent (and unexpected) announcement that EQD won’t do Saucy Drawfriends for Pony Appreciation Days anymore (granted, Sethisto jumps back and forth on the question of saucy stuff or not and seems to be pretty indecisive about it, it happened before that he randomly changed his mind about it, but the time of occurence is still suspicious) and, just a short time ago, an explicit post only serving to tell EQD visitors they shouldn’t go and look for a recent, new show bible leak (even though the information in that is heavily outdated, this seems like something Hasbro would want to avoid if they can).
 
None of these things ever happened before 2017. Especially the last one is strange….. Why would EQD care so much to warn about a show bible leak? It got leaked years prior, I think EQD even reported about that and basically encouraged to download it since it wasn’t doing any harm anyway and was just a neat piece of old behind the scenes material that fans wouldn’t be able to get otherwise, and EQD has no obligation to keep fans from seeking it out, morally or otherwise.  
In fact, this is a very strange behavior for a fansite.  
Except, if Hasbro does have a partnership with EQD, whatever benefis this holds for Sethisto, then Hasbro could definitely demand such things in return.  
And this still raises the concern of Hasbro influencing the site and forming it according to its will, especially if Sethisto signed a contract that allows Hasbro a certain degree of control to decide what he does with the site and what he doesn’t do with it.  
There is very real potential and danger for censorship here, in which case, EQD wouldn’t be an independent news source anymore.  
And whatever the deal with Hasbro entails exactly, this could get worse in the future if Hasbro offers more money or benefits to Sethisto in exchange for more control over the site. Once that Pandora’s Box has been opened, it won’t close anymore.  
It doesn’t have to be a complete buyout, a partnership like this could already have very negative and detrimental effects on EQD and the fandom.
ÄrkÿNóîd
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Eh, it doesn’t hurt to doubt the authenticity of that claim. Seems sketchy. However, one would be sensory deprived not to realize that EqD has no doubt contributed to the rise of MLP and a good streak for Hasbro.
Background Pony #41AC
I don’t really see how this changes anything honestly, a million dollars in pocket for a fairly minor change seems like a good deal however you slice it.
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