Hasbro has announced that it is cutting 1,000 jobs or about 15 percent of its global workforce after warning that its upcoming holiday quarter results would come in lower than expected.
"The elimination of these positions will impact many loyal Hasbro employees, and we do not undertake this process lightly," said CEO Chris Cocks. "However, the changes are necessary to return our business to a competitive, industry-leading position and to provide the foundation for future success."
The company said the layoffs fit into a larger company goal of delivering $250-300 million in annualized cost savings by the end of 2024. The plan will also bring an organizational overhaul, beginning with the departure of Eric Nyman, president and chief operating officer.
Nyman's department, consumer products, apparently underperformed compared to the rest of the business.
“Despite strong growth in Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming, Hasbro Pulse, and our licensing business, our Consumer Products business underperformed in the fourth quarter against the backdrop of a challenging holiday consumer environment,” Cocks said.
Hasbro said Wizards of the Coast is expected to have generated $339 million in the fourth quarter, a 22 percent increase over the previous year.
The company will report its full fourth quarter results on Feb. 16.
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
