Hasbro has announced that they will be eliminating 1,000 jobs from their global workforce – or 15% of their entire workforce – within the coming weeks to combat lower-than-expected fiscal results for 2022. This is all part of a new plan from new CEO Chris Cocks titled “Blueprint 2.0”, which sees the company as a whole transition away from former CEO Brian Goldner‘s vision of Hasbro becoming an entertainment company and more in to Hasbro becoming a gaming company.
The gaming division of Hasbro – specifically Wizards of the Coast – was the only segment of business to see positive revenues in 2022. That is before the debacle with the changes to their Open Gaming License (OGL) which saw tens of thousands of fans cancel their paid online accounts with Dungeons and Dragons in protest.
Hasbro is also looking to sell off their recently acquired entertainment division, eOne, but maintain control of the intellectual properties that they can exploit in other segments of business (ie: toys, games, cards, etc.). The company already sold off the music portion of eOne which, coupled with the lack of meaningful IP’s may make selling the rest of eOne harder than expected.
Our thoughts and positive energies are with those effected negatively by these upcoming layoffs.