Isn't that business basically free money? The way I see it, no capital investment is needed. You just need to keep a few accountants and lawyers around to handle occasional licensing paperwork. Am I missing something?
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/present-value-annuity.a...
For assets line like IP you have to factor in how risky the returns are, how much investment you'd have to make to see them (e.g. making a movie), and overall strategy (do we want to be in that line of business).
All this to say - if you have IP that pays 10 million a year, you can value future returns on that IP in today's dollars. If someone offers you more than that to buy it, you should take the deal; you come out ahead.
Hasbro is doing the same. Swap fifty years of slow income for instant liquidity. A company with as many steels in the fire as Hasbro should be able to use that to generate a lot more money than through legacy property.
Because this is my layman's conception of how media licensing works, at least.