D&D General Elon Musk Wants To Know 'How Much Is Hasbro?'

Following the richest man in the world's attack on Wizards of the Coast for two paragraphs in the 500-page celebration of D&D, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977, Elon Musk--who bought Twitter not that long ago--wants to know how much D&D's owner Hasbro would cost.

After the public sharing on Twitter of Jason Tondro's (who wrote the book’s foreword) private Facebook posts, Musk replied "How much is Hasbro?"

Hasbro's estimated capitalization is currently $8.71 billion, with $3.95 billion of debt.

It was on 21st December 2017 when Musk similarly enquired "How much is it?" before proceeding to make a bid for Twitter. He later tried to back out of the deal, but was forced to buy the platform for $44 billion in June 2022. Current estimates by investment firm Fidelity put the platform at a value 80% less than when he bought it, with a worth of only about $9.4 billion.

 

[Maxperson]

Hasbro builds toys and video games that can be used to inspire children to dream of going to Mars, so they grow up supporting Musk's vision. Imagine Pippa Pig goes to Mars or Transformers building a base on Mars, Exodus is mostly already there with themes of space exploration and colonization of new planets. Mars could be done up as a Sci fi setting for D&D, putting the idea in D&D players heads. MtG could do an Invasion from Mars set.

They'd be fighting an uphill battle.

1. Mars Attacks.
2. The Martian Manhunter.
3. Total Recall.
4. War of the Worlds.
5. The Martian Chronicles.
6. ...

 

[Corinnguard]

They'd be fighting an uphill battle.

1. Mars Attacks.
2. The Martian Manhunter.
3. Total Recall.
4. War of the Worlds.
5. The Martian Chronicles.
6. ...

Exactly. The planet has been used in various media for a number of decades. Several generations of people around the world have shown some interest in it. But a number of people are currently concerned with this planet and all of its' troubles. It will be a while for sci-fi to catch up with reality regarding any would-be Martian colonies.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Exactly. The planet has been used in various media for a number of decades. Several generations of people around the world have shown some interest in it. But a number of people are currently concerned with this planet and all of its' troubles. It will be a while for sci-fi to catch up with reality regarding any would-be Martian colonies.

Now you are giving him the idea to buy Terraforming Mars, I like that game also.

 

[Maxperson]

The difference is that noone is going to pool billions of dollars in a coalition of investors to buy Hasbro because Elon had a fit over D&D. Because Twitter lets those people have control over world-wide speech. He's not going to find anyone willing to help him scrape together 16 billion for Hasbro, let alone 25 billion.

Not to mention the CFO has an easy excuse to refuse anything but those kind of ridiculous of offers, because he can point to the Twitter purchase and just say in private that he thinks Musk is dumb enough to pay more.

You underestimate greed. Musk has had enough successes that one blunder won't stop a lot of investors from taking the gamble. When it comes to venture capitalists, there's something like a 30% expected loss rate from investments.

 

[Corinnguard]

Now you are giving him the idea to buy Terraforming Mars, I like that game also.

If he already hasn't been the given the idea by someone else (and later claimed credit for).

 

[Maxperson]

If Tesla's are known for anything, it's exploding.

Because of sensationalist news of course. It's more fun for consumers and more profitable for new agencies to report on Tesla fires and ignore the cars from other brands that catch fire far more often.

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/study-electric-vehicles-involved-in-fewest-car-fires/

Fires are less frequent in Teslas and other EVs vs. gas vehicles

Electric vehicle fires are less frequent—although a number of factors can lead to a different (false) impression.

www.greencarreports.com

 

[Maxperson]

Now you are giving him the idea to buy Terraforming Mars, I like that game also.

My group absolutely loves that game. We've been playing it for many years and still play it very often. With the number of expansion and promo cards out there, each game is still fun.

 

[Wolfram stout]

the CFO has no say in this. If Musk offered $100 for a Hasbro stock trading around $65, with the offer valid for the next 10 days, chances are he owns the company in 10 days, no matter what the CFO thinks

No. You can't just buy a public company like that. At the very least the board would have to approve (depending on state of incorporation). Yes a hostile takeover will work if you can throw enough money at it but it is not just offering insane amounts of money at stock holders.

 

[mamba]

No. You can't just buy a public company like that. At the very least the board would have to approve (depending on state of incorporation).

All I need to do is buy enough stocks....

Yes a hostile takeover will work if you can throw enough money at it but it is not just offering insane amounts of money at stock holders.

There is not really much difference between offering enough for people to sell to you and a hostile takeover, is there?

 

[Parmandur]

All I need to do is buy enough stocks....

That won't work if the board ha sufficient stocks in reserve to issue. Musk would need the board's ciiperstion...and that is doubtful.