<story><title>Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers</title><url>https://www.polygon.com/23998290/hasbro-layoffs-before-christmas</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>oflannabhra</author><text>Hasbro is essentially upside down, with huge losses across all their brands being subsidized by enormous growth from their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Even with that growth, they are significantly down.&lt;p&gt;There was a big investor push recently (led by Alta Fox) to get Hasbro to spin WotC out into an independent company [0], which failed. The big concern being that forcing growth on those properties (Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons &amp;amp; Dragons) to continue to support failed strategies with legacy properties could risk ruining those properties through mismanagement for short-term gains.&lt;p&gt;I really don&amp;#x27;t know where Hasbro goes from here. I don&amp;#x27;t think the toy market will ever recover, and the board game world has completely passed by properties like Monopoly. Chris Cocks, the CEO is the former head of WotC, so I&amp;#x27;m hoping there is some level of understanding of stewardship of the WotC properties, but I&amp;#x27;m really not confident. Even the recent D&amp;amp;D movie was disappointing from a business perspective (although surprisingly wonderful for fans). They also have a huge success in Baldur&amp;#x27;s Gate 3, although it is also disappointing from a monetization perspective. Even those recent lukewarm wins are within the WotC umbrella.&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wargamer.com&amp;#x2F;dnd&amp;#x2F;hasbro-wins-wizards-of-the-coast-spin-off&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wargamer.com&amp;#x2F;dnd&amp;#x2F;hasbro-wins-wizards-of-the-coas...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Hasbro lays off nearly 20% of its workers</title><url>https://www.polygon.com/23998290/hasbro-layoffs-before-christmas</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>roughly</author><text>Laying off the workers at the toy factory two weeks before Christmas is the thing the villain in an 80s kids movie would do.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t mean that to be hyperbolic - like, literally, that&amp;#x27;s the sort of thing that was culturally cast as villainous behavior a generation or two ago.</text></comment>