WotC Who should own Wizards of the Coast if/when it is sold?

[Luminous]

Hopefully a businessman who also has a family?

 

[Morrus]

Very silly thread.

 

[Dragonblade]

I doubt D&D is worth 500 million.

Entire hobby is what 50-60 million a year WotC only gets a slice of that then has to pay expenses. Wouldn't be surprised if it "only" brings in ten or twenty million minus expenses.

If they wanted to sell and someone waved $100-200 million cash under their noses.....

LOL. For 100 million, EA or Bethesda would write that check today and wouldn't think twice. That pennies on the dollar for what D&D is worth. A couple of A list PC and console game releases would make that money back and more. Dragon Age Inquisition alone made over 150 million based on units sold. Think what they could do with the entire D&D IP catalog.

Good rule of thumb is a business or brand is worth about 10x the annual recurring revenue, or a reasonable estimate of what that revenue could be based on historical data. I don't have access to any D&D internal numbers, but with its properties, huge brand awareness, a substantial back catalog of games, novels, the licensed gaming rights, potential television streaming rights, D&D Beyond, etc. WotC is probably bringing in 50-60 million for D&D today, and could probably double it to 100 million if they really exploited all their assets, aggressively pursued deals with Netflix, etc. but they are likely being very conservative. Trying to build evergreen recurring revenue and and exploiting opportunities carefully, after the spikes and crashes of prior editions.

Anyway 50-60 million is reasonable guess. 10x of 50 million is 500 million. Thats a reasonable and likely very conservative ask for D&D. Its likely worth more, but no way that Hasbro ever sells it for less than that.

 

[Zardnaar]

LOL. For 100 million, EA or Bethesda would write that check today and wouldn't think twice. That pennies on the dollar for what D&D is worth. A couple of A list PC and console game releases would make that money back and more. Dragon Age Inquisition alone made over 150 million based on units sold. Think what they could do with the entire D&D IP catalog.

Good rule of thumb is a business or brand is worth about 10x the annual recurring revenue, or a reasonable estimate of what that revenue could be based on historical data. I don't have access to any D&D internal numbers, but with its properties, huge brand awareness, a substantial back catalog of games, novels, the licensed gaming rights, potential television streaming rights, D&D Beyond, etc. WotC is probably bringing in 50-60 million for D&D today, and could probably double it to 100 million if they really exploited all their assets, aggressively pursued deals with Netflix, etc. but they are likely being very conservative. Trying to build evergreen recurring revenue and and exploiting opportunities carefully, after the spikes and crashes of prior editions.

Anyway 50-60 million is reasonable guess. 10x of 50 million is 500 million. Thats a reasonable and likely very conservative ask for D&D. Its likely worth more, but no way that Hasbro ever sells it for less than that.

I highly doubt D&D is making that much for WotC.

We keep hearing about a movie or that killer app game.

Still waiting.

$100 million is looking like it's the bare minimum I cane up with.

If I had 500 million dollars I wouldn't buy D&D.

 

[Morrus]

Good rule of thumb is a business or brand is worth about 10x the annual recurring revenue,

No it's not.

If it was, I'd sell this site and retire.

 

[DnD Warlord]

Someone that like me thinks a mix of 4e and 2e with martial classes kicking as much but in all areas as casters

 

[MarkB]

None of the above. If it must be sold, let it be spun off into its own freestanding game company.

They could run a Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Dragonblade]

No it's not.

If it was, I'd sell this site and retire.

2x to 5x historically for small businesses. But tech deals and IP deals tend to go for more. I'm certainly making generalizations based on past deals that have gone public, plus the sale of firms in my own industry which is finance and tech. EA paid almost 900 million for Bioware back in 2007 I think. At the time that would have been a 6x to 8x deal. When Disney bought Marvel that was roughly a 10x deal, if I recall correctly, but Marvel was also highly leveraged at the time. Salesforce just bought Slack for 27 billion at over 20x its revenue, so many think they overpaid, but they really wanted Slack. So it depends.

And of course it depends on what someone is willing to pay and how much of the IP is bound into one man's work. You are a machine, Morrus. I've been following this site since it was Eric Noah's 3e rumor site, and you since you took it over. There is certainly value in EN World, but a lot of that value is driven by your hard work. Unless they can also buy you to come with the site, I agree it wouldn't go for 10x because they cant replicate the value you bring.

 

[Zardnaar]

2x to 5x historically for small businesses. But tech deals and IP deals tend to go for more. I'm certainly making generalizations based on past deals that have gone public, plus the sale of firms in my own industry which is finance and tech. EA paid almost 900 million for Bioware back in 2007 I think. At the time that would have been a 6x to 8x deal. When Disney bought Marvel that was roughly a 10x deal, if I recall correctly, but Marvel was also highly leveraged at the time. Salesforce just bought Slack for 27 billion at over 20x its revenue, so many think they overpaid, but they really wanted Slack. So it depends.

And of course it depends on what someone is willing to pay and how much of the IP is bound into one man's work. You are a machine, Morrus. I've been following this site since it was Eric Noah's 3e rumor site, and you since you took it over. There is certainly value in EN World, but a lot of that value is driven by your hard work. Unless they can also buy you to come with the site, I agree it wouldn't go for 10x because they cant replicate the value you bring.

As I said if I had 500 million to invest I wouldn't be buying D&D.

 

[Eltab]

Very silly thread.

Umm, who started the thread about ICrV reporting on rumors about Hasbro selling WotC / D&D ?

 

[Ancalagon]

Battletech is one of the best example of how sci-fi gets old. New generations miss current technology we can't see in the old sci-fi titles, for example the mobiles, the flat screens and the tablets. It is not only Battletech but also most of franchises within the mecha (giant robots) subgenre. Only transformers and some other are in the new wave now.

The Mandalorian would like a word.