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Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

polygon.com

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Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#131

Post by dragonwriter »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #113
ska wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the jurisdiction, severance packages may be required for mass layoffs.

The WARN act (US federal law) requires that any company with over 100 employees gives 60 days notice. If they don't provide 60 days notice, they are required to give 60 days pay. Obviously, local laws will vary greatly.

> The WARN act (US federal law) requires that any company with over 100 employees gives 60 days notice. If they don't provide 60 days notice, they are required to give 60 days pay.

Pay and compensation for the value of employee-provided benefits to which they would have been entitled had they been employed, if the layoff meets the size, etc., requirement for WARN Act coverage.

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#132

Post by Macha »

entropicdrifter wrote: post #126
TheCaptain4815 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BG3 was disappointing from a monetization perspective? How on earth, it sold over 20 million copies in less than a year!

It's a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Hasbro's income from BG3 pales in comparison to MTG boosters from this year alone, let alone the income over time.

It's also clear from Hasbro's own statements they didn't expect it to do so well.

Maybe they thought it would have sold like a Divinity 3 and as such gave Larian a better deal on the IP licensing than they think they could have got if they'd known in advance how well it would sell.

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#134

Post by pcthrowaway »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #93
lancesells wrote: post #50

Executive salaries: https://www1.salary.com/HASBRO-INC-Executive-Salaries.html

~$37M for the execs listed, vs 1100 workers laid off - probably mostly making under $100k. This is one of the rare cases in the layoff discussions where the exec salaries do seem quite excessive. Hasbro had been averaging profits of around ~$250M for the last several years. Paying ~5 people >10% of your profits is INSANE. Continuing to reward them handsomely as your profits drop from ~$250M to -$500M is REALLY INSANE…

> Hasbro had been averaging profits of around ~$250M for the last several years.

> Paying ~5 people >10% of your profits is INSANE.

Wouldn't profits be determined after wages are paid?

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#135

Post by Karellen »

slimsag wrote: post #78
oflannabhra wrote: post #28

Hasbro is essentially upside down, with huge losses across all their brands being subsidized by enormous growth from their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Even with that growth, they are significantly down. There was a big investor push recently (led by Alta Fox) to get Hasbro to spin WotC out into an independent company [0], which failed. The big concern being that forcing growth on those properties (Magic: the Gat…

Hasbro needed to, and failed to (imo), transition into selling higher-end luxury toys for adults with nostalgia - and focus less on kids. With the exception of DnD, everything else Hasbro-owned has failed to capture such an audience I think. Their toys are generally priced ~$25 or less. Higher-end variants of their toys are not by Hasbro, but rather by other companies. Want a high-end nerf gun? You're going to Dart Z…

> brands like Lego have evolved, are insanely expensive (>$100)

I thought that Lego prices had remained pretty steady over time.

https://realityprose.com/what-happened-with-lego/

OK, that study was published 10 years ago, but I haven't noticed any huge price hikes in the last decade for comparable sets. Yes, there are some bigger sets now than there used to be, but the small sets haven't gone away and are still there too, at what seem like reasonable (to me) prices. And while sets based on licensing deals (e.g. Marvel/Disney) are a bit more pricey than their own in-house ranges (City, Creator, Friends, Ninjago, etc...), again it doesn't seem like a huge gap?

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#136

Post by sixothree »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #103
sixothree wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably 50% or more of the yearly cost of those workers.

No - it's $37M - it should be less than 20% for sure. They HAD 5500 employees. After the layoffs, it could be close to ~30% - which is INSANE - but not as absolutely crazy as 50% would be.

I was calculating laid off workers at $70k.

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#137

Post by tomatotomato31 »

slimsag wrote: post #78
oflannabhra wrote: post #28

Hasbro is essentially upside down, with huge losses across all their brands being subsidized by enormous growth from their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Even with that growth, they are significantly down. There was a big investor push recently (led by Alta Fox) to get Hasbro to spin WotC out into an independent company [0], which failed. The big concern being that forcing growth on those properties (Magic: the Gat…

Hasbro needed to, and failed to (imo), transition into selling higher-end luxury toys for adults with nostalgia - and focus less on kids. With the exception of DnD, everything else Hasbro-owned has failed to capture such an audience I think. Their toys are generally priced ~$25 or less. Higher-end variants of their toys are not by Hasbro, but rather by other companies. Want a high-end nerf gun? You're going to Dart Z…

When I buy a 200€ Lego set I still build it up for a few hours.

I can't come up with something I would buy from Hasbro in that range and having something to do with it though.

And there is Lego master tv show which also makes a lot of sense.

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#138

Post by kridsdale3 »

brianwawok wrote: post #125
sircastor wrote: post #114

The older I get the more I hate publicly traded stock. Early on it seems like it had a positive advantage for companies, but here in the fully matured market we find that it just screws up all the incentives. Every company imaginable stops being what they are: A computer company, a cookie company, a toy company, an internet provider, a movie studio, etc. They all just turn into a single, stupid thing: A stockholder a…

So what is the alternative? You can have a fully private company.. but most of those focus on squeezing cash out. A few are more "benefit the world" style which is great, but I don't think its the popular thing. The biggest drawback is stock investors are too short sighted, and value things that are good for 1 quarter and bad for 10 years.

Somehow get companies to be like Valve.

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#139

Post by lamontcg »

phero_cnstrcts wrote: post #99
influx wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you live through the 80s? I did and find this wildly inaccurate. See the Greed is Good memes and hero worship of Wall Street.

Yeah. That type of people have existed since forever. Today they just have more power than ever or just don’t try to hide it anymore.

It has been happening all along. People are just barely starting to notice now (and back in the 1970s people were a lot more aware of it).

Re: Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers

#140

Post by Solvency »

slimsag wrote: post #78
oflannabhra wrote: post #28

Hasbro is essentially upside down, with huge losses across all their brands being subsidized by enormous growth from their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Even with that growth, they are significantly down. There was a big investor push recently (led by Alta Fox) to get Hasbro to spin WotC out into an independent company [0], which failed. The big concern being that forcing growth on those properties (Magic: the Gat…

Hasbro needed to, and failed to (imo), transition into selling higher-end luxury toys for adults with nostalgia - and focus less on kids. With the exception of DnD, everything else Hasbro-owned has failed to capture such an audience I think. Their toys are generally priced ~$25 or less. Higher-end variants of their toys are not by Hasbro, but rather by other companies. Want a high-end nerf gun? You're going to Dart Z…

I don't get it. Merchandising is still huge business. Just look at Disney toy sales. Why don't Hasbro invest in new IP?
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