Hasbro
Hasbro is the owner of the Transformers brand in most markets beyond the Japanese, where it is owned by TakaraTomy.
Hasbro was originally founded in 1923 as "Hassenfeld Brothers" by brothers Henry and Helal Hassenfeld from Rhode Island. The company originally sold textile remnants, but soon moved into manufacturing pencil boxes and school supplies.
In 1952, Hasbro first rose to fame with the release of a toy named "Mr. Potato Head", which is still very popular today.
In 1964, Hasbro had an even greater success with the original "G.I. Joe" toy designed by Don Levine, which caused Hassenfeld Bros. to grow to be one of the largest toy companies in the USA. In 1968, the company would change its name into "Hasbro Industries, Inc."
Through a series of importing licenses and spin-offs, G.I. Joe would ultimately lead to the "Microman" and "Diaclone" toylines by Japanese toymaker Takara, which inturn would lead to Hasbro's release of the original "Transformers" toyline in 1984.
In 1984, Hasbro would also buy out a competing toy company named Milton Bradley (MB), which whould result in the merged company briefly assuming the name "Hasbro Bradley, Inc." After the merger was completed, the company changed ints name into simply "Hasbro, Inc." Milton Bradley's European facilities would also be used to manufacture the initial wave of Transformers toys to be released in Europe before the merger was completed.