Hasbro Reports Q4 Sales Decline Unexpectedly

[El Mahdi]

..."Slash your capital spending to X dollars." Very straight-forward, projects get prioritised and funding starts at the top. All projects still unfunded once the money runs out are scrapped...

This seems consistent with what we've seen...

I'm purely conjecturing with absolutley no expertise on this at all, but it makes sense to me...

 

[shadzar]

I work for a wholly owned subsidiary. I've seen "pull-back" edicts come from our parent in two different ways.

The first is "Slash your capital spending to X dollars." Very straight-forward, projects get prioritised and funding starts at the top. All projects still unfunded once the money runs out are scrapped.

The second edict is "All projects must have an internal rate of return of X or more within Y years". All project proposals are reviewed for the expected benefits and those that no longer meet the head office threshold stop.

Neither method offers a great measure, but they are simple and easy to enforce. In both cases, the final decision rests with the subsidiary.

Have no idea what you are talking about when all I said was HASBRO is giving money to WotC to beef up its board games and digital presence.

Want to explain how it relates to that?

 

[Nagol]

Have no idea what you are talking about when all I said was HASBRO is giving money to WotC to beef up its board games and digital presence.

Want to explain how it relates to that?

That the subsidiary (WotC) dictates the use of the capital provided by the parent (Hasbro). Hasbro isn't dumping money into WotC to beef up board games and online presence. WotC is spending the capital it has, (whether less than, the same as, or more than previous years), on board games and online presence.

Since we are seeing previouslly announced project get cut and not seeing new announcements on top of previous commitments, it is likely that the capital received has been lowered by management.

 

[shadzar]

That the subsidiary (WotC) dictates the use of the capital provided by the parent (Hasbro). Hasbro isn't dumping money into WotC to beef up board games and online presence. WotC is spending the capital it has, (whether less than, the same as, or more than previous years), on board games and online presence.

Since we are seeing previouslly announced project get cut and not seeing new announcements on top of previous commitments, it is likely that the capital received has been lowered by management.

Yes actually, but I cant find the thread and info/link, It read as though HASBRO is investing more money into WotC in order for WotC to have more to use on board games and DDi, the words were something like "online" something not DDi exactly.

The thread had something about a 10-k or something dealing with HASBRO, maybe you will have better luck finding it.

FOUND IT!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpg-industry-forum/299675-business-discussion.html#post5432268

It probably is from this:

HASBRO INC - FORM 10-K - February 24, 2010

 

[jefgorbach]

[MENTION=41849]MoxieFu[/MENTION]
Hard to say. However many stores began Holiday sales far far earlier than ever, skewing the year-over-year numbers by including far more weeks than ever, so while INITIAL overall sales were likely higher, they might not be had the timespan been held consistent. Secondly, we've yet heard how much of those sales were later returned.

I know my local Walmart seemed to have "plenty" (ie not selling) game/toy sales, yet completely sold out of TV/blu-ray players SEVERAL times as people took advance of deep discounts to replace older low-definition sets -- only to have approx 50% return post-Christmas; presumably when people's realized having food/utility take precedence over having better hardware.

 

[Nagol]

Yes actually, but I cant find the thread and info/link, It read as though HASBRO is investing more money into WotC in order for WotC to have more to use on board games and DDi, the words were something like "online" something not DDi exactly.

The thread had something about a 10-k or something dealing with HASBRO, maybe you will have better luck finding it.

FOUND IT!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpg-industry-forum/299675-business-discussion.html#post5432268

It probably is from this:

HASBRO INC - FORM 10-K - February 24, 2010

That's the parent explaining where its money is going not that the parent is dumping more money. The amount of money WotC consumed for its digital offerings (including 3? games for the XBox for Magic: The Gathering) is large enough to be called out for attention.

 

[MoxieFu]

That's the parent explaining where its money is going not that the parent is dumping more money. The amount of money WotC consumed for its digital offerings (including 3? games for the XBox for Magic: The Gathering) is large enough to be called out for attention.

[MENTION=41849]MoxieFu[/MENTION]
Hard to say. However many stores began Holiday sales far far earlier than ever, skewing the year-over-year numbers by including far more weeks than ever, so while INITIAL overall sales were likely higher, they might not be had the timespan been held consistent. Secondly, we've yet heard how much of those sales were later returned.

I know my local Walmart seemed to have "plenty" (ie not selling) game/toy sales, yet completely sold out of TV/blu-ray players SEVERAL times as people took advance of deep discounts to replace older low-definition sets -- only to have approx 50% return post-Christmas; presumably when people's realized having food/utility take precedence over having better hardware.

Those are good points. All we could do with validity is compare Hasbro's earnings to the rest of the toy and game industry. And I surely don't have those numbers.

Just knowing that Hasbro's sales were down during the most critical time of the year is enough to make me think they are putting more pressure on WotC to squeeze more earnings from the D&D property.

 

[Glade Riven]

I know LEGO sold well, locally. Bare shelves at TRU. Other toy shelves...not so depleted. But TRU apparently did well this last holiday season.

 

[Argyle King]

I'm not surprised. The local Barnes & Noble seems to be barely selling any D&D stuff. I know that's just a small drop in the bucket for Hasbro as a whole, but... just saying. It seemed as though the store was on the receiving end of a large amount of product (you'd barely know other rpgs existed now with as much D&D stuff being there,) and it's all still just sitting there. It's getting to the point where they have had to move some of it to another area of the store.

On the other hand, I've noticed that Nerf and Legos seem to have done really well locally.

 

[Nagol]

Hasbro released its 4th Quarter numbers this evening and boy did it take a shellacking in the Games and Puzzles category around Christmas.

Games and Puzzles fell 22% compared to the same quarter the previous year and that brought the whole year down 4% compared to fiscal 2009.

            Q4 2010     Q4 2009   Delta       FY 2010       FY 2009  Delta
Games and     (000s)
Puzzles     417,460     534,841    -22%     1,293,772     1,340,886    -4%

The last quarter reduction ($117,381,000) is about 2.5 times the size of the whole year dip ($47,114,000) for the category.

News Sources - The Globe and Mail