Hasbro Stock Price Surges After Elon Musk Makes Comments About Purchasing Company

Hasbro's stock price has jumped nearly 2% after Elon Musk made an offhand comment on his social media platform about potentially buying the Dungeons & Dragons publisher. Coming out of the US Thanksgiving holiday, Hasbro's stock price jumped by 2% on Friday. The cause appears not to be Black Friday sales, but rather Elon Musk's recent comments about Hasbro and Dungeons & Dragons. Early Thursday morning, Musk responded to a post on the app formerly known as Twitter by social media culture warrior Ian Miles Cheong asking "How much is Hasbro?" Cheong had posted Facebook comments made by D&D designer Jason Tondro, who spoke about his decision to include acknowledgement of outdated views within early versions of Dungeons & Dragons. In his post, Cheong called the phrase "grognard" a slur and also incorrectly referred to Tondro as the "project lead" of Dungeons & Dragons. In another post, Cheong incorrectly stated that Hasbro owned the "license" to Dungeons & Dragons. (Hasbro owns Dungeons & Dragons outright.) Musk's net worth is estimated at over $334 billion.

The stock price responded positively to the possibility of Musk purchasing Hasbro, with the price bouncing well ahead of Wednesday's price of $63.89. Musk is an expert businessman, having previously purchased Twitter for $44 billion after a prolonged lawsuit in which he attempted to back out of the deal. Twitter's valuation currently sits at around $9 billion, a decrease of nearly 80%. Hasbro's current market cap is $9.1 billion, which means Musk would only stand to lose around $7 billion should he tank its value at a similar rate to Twitter's.

Musk's interest in the toymaker stems from his umbrage over comments found in The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons. In the foreword of the book, Tondro discusses the "moral quandry" in early D&D material, specifically referencing insensitive and derogatory language that was "casually harmful to anyone with a physical or metal disability, or happens to be old, fat, not conventionally attractive, indigenous, Black, or a woman." Tondro never criticizes Gary Gygax or the other co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons by name in the foreword, but Musk and several other right-wing leaning commentators took his words as an explicit attack.

 

[Remathilis]

You know Ukraine would have already fallen without StarLink? It's why big Z sucks up to Musk.

Irrelevant. Much of Musk's followers on Xitter are Russian bots.

 

[LordEntrails]

I mean, he can change the way gaming is perceived in culture. He can make it so unpopular and full of such toxicity that growth becomes nil - that entire populations of fans feel unwelcome.
When many players turned from D&D 4e to Pathfinder, the hobby was different. Today, most players seem to be D&D fans. Musk would kill interest in the entire hobby for the legions of players who joined in the 5e era.
I expect this will be what's going to happen.

It's a possibility. But it won't affect me that much. Like you, I've been playing since the '70's when D&D was unpopular. And even played through the Satanic Panic. I own more content than I will ever use. And can always create more of my own as needed.

Now, I don't want that to happen. Or think it would be beneficial to society on the larger view. But me, yeah, it won't affect me all that much.

 

[Mark Craddock]

The real value of Twitter is the cultural power it gained Musk, not it's Market Cap.

Besides Musk will likely find ways now to pump twitters value up with his increased clout, score a pile of Government advertising contracts plus pressure of corporations to advertise on twitter.

Plus alot of Twitters value was basically based on fraud, it was over inflated by bots, when Musk found out, he tried to back out, but couldn't.

Unlike Twitter which was radically over valued when he bought it, it was profitable for like 1 year, Hasbro is potential is vastly untapped, it's stock could unexplored upwards with the right leadership.

Yeah, Twitter was a terrible deal that illustrates why many people dislike Musk. Inferring "fraud" in relationship to Musk's poor decision making speaks volumes too.

Its really easy to remain a billionaire when you start out rich.

 

[Azzy]

I mean, he can change the way gaming is perceived in culture. He can make it so unpopular and full of such toxicity that growth becomes nil - that entire populations of fans feel unwelcome.
When many players turned from D&D 4e to Pathfinder, the hobby was different. Today, most players seem to be D&D fans. Musk would kill interest in the entire hobby for the legions of players who joined in the 5e era.
I expect this will be what's going to happen.

If he buys Hasbro, I would join those that would never have anything to do with the game anymore.

The rich are the enemy of the people and billionaires are an abomination.

 

[Clint_L]

You assume loud voices on the internet truly represent the views of the majority, they don't. Musk has legions of fans who will happily jump into D&D.

You honestly believe that Musk fanboys are just waiting to hop into D&D? And would have the capacity for it?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Stocktraders prove once again that they cannot be trusted with money.

 

[Morrus]

You assume loud voices on the internet truly represent the views of the majority, they don't. Musk has legions of fans who will happily jump into D&D.

But you are noted on these forums for getting your information from outrage clickbait YouTube videos—to the point where we have had to ask you to stop posting them before. I don’t think an argument that it’s everyone else who’s listening to ‘loud voices on the internet’ is really one which holds much water, especially given the source.

 

[Superchunk77]

I hope he buys it just so I can enjoy the schadenfreude of the aftermath.

 

[Azzy]

I hope he buys it just so I can enjoy the schadenfreude of the aftermath.

Don't simp for oligarchs.

 

[Bedrockgames]

You honestly believe that Musk fanboys are just waiting to hop into D&D? And would have the capacity for it?

You assume loud voices on the internet truly represent the views of the majority, they don't. Musk has legions of fans who will happily jump into D&D.

I think you guys are both kind of right. He is as divisive figure. He has many fans and many detractors. And now he is also tied to politics (which probably only intensifies that).

While I am sympathetic to his criticisms of WOTC (and I imagine a lot of the things I don't like that WOTC has done with D&D are things he would be likely to change if he took over), I think it would be bad for the game community. We are already at a point where folks are deeply divided over this stuff. If Musk bought HASBRO or just WOTC. Heck if he just bought the rights to D&D, it would effectively mean about half of the population would not play.I do think WOTC has made a lot of misteps and I think older fans do have justification for feeling at times insulted and pushed aside by WOTC, but again, at the end of the day, no one is going anywhere. All the different bickering factions in the game community are still going to be around next year, the year after and the year after that. So I think we really need to figure out a way to talk to one another as human beings and exist in the same hobby. But Musk stepping in would simply amplify the division

Most of us come to gaming to escape from teh stresses of the world. Right now it feels pretty stressful to even engage with the hobby in online communities.

Also just as a matter of principle, I think relying on an expectation that tremendously wealthy people will step into these kinds of debates, is just seriously flawed. We need less of that in our society, not more. I don't want individuals with lots of money having that much power and influence over things. This isn't about Musk in particular, just generally in the US I think the billionaire thing has gotten way out of hand