Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is an American multinational toy and boardgame company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The majority of its products are manufactured in East Asia.

Hasbro, Inc. (Hasbro) is engaged in providing children’s and family leisure time products and services with a portfolio of brands and entertainment properties. Its offerings include a range of games, including board, card, hand-held electronic, trading card, role-playing and digital versatile disc (DVD) games, as well as electronic learning aids and puzzles. Toy offerings include boys’ action figures, vehicles and playsets, girls’ toys, electronic toys, plush products, preschool toys and infant products, electronic interactive products, and play and toy-related specialty products. The Company operates in three segments: U.S. and Canada, International, and Entertainment and Licensing.
Hasbro’s boys’ toys category includes a range of brand offerings, such as TRANSFORMERS and G.I. JOE action figures and accessories, as well as entertainment-based licensed products based on movie, television and comic book characters. Its games and puzzles category includes MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, CRANIUM, AVALON HILL and WIZARDS OF THE COAST. Game brands include TRIVIAL PURSUIT, BATTLESHIP, GAME OF LIFE, SCRABBLE, CHUTES AND LADDERS, CANDY LAND, TROUBLE, MOUSETRAP, OPERATION, HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS, CONNECT FOUR, TWISTER, YAHTZEE, CRANIUM, JENGA, SIMON, CLUE, SORRY!, RISK, BOGGLE, TRIVIAL PURSUIT, GUESS WHO? and BOP IT!.
Girls’ toy brands include MY LITTLE PONY, FURREAL FRIENDS, BABY ALIVE and STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. Hasbro’s preschool products include a portfolio of brands marketed primarily under the PLAYSKOOL trademark. The PLAYSKOOL line includes MR. POTATO HEAD, WEEBLES, SIT ’N SPIN and GLOWORM, including STEP START WALK’ N RIDE, 2-IN-1 TUMMY TIME GYM and BUSY BALL POPPER. As of December 26, 2010, Hasbro owned a 50% interest in a joint venture with Discovery Communications, Inc. (Discovery) that operates a television network in the United States, and THE HUB. Hasbro Studios, the Company’s wholly owned production studio, produces television programming primarily based on its brands for distribution on THE HUB in the United States and for distribution on other networks internationally. During the fiscal year ended December 26, 2010 (fiscal 2010), the Company’s net revenues generated from NERF products was 10.3% of its consolidated net revenues.
U.S. and Canada
The U.S. and Canada segment is engaged in the marketing and sale of its product categories in the United States and Canada. During fiscal 2010, the Company’s brands and products included NERF, MARVEL products, STAR WARS products, PLAYSKOOL, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, PLAY-DOH, FURREAL FRIENDS and MONOPOLY.
International
The International segment is engaged in the marketing and sale of its product categories to retailers and wholesalers in the European countries, Asia Pacific and Latin and South America, and through distributors in those countries. It also operates in Brazil, China, Russia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Korea. During fiscal 2010, Hasbro began operations in Peru. During fiscal 2010, the Company’s international brands included LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, TRANSFORMERS, STAR WARS and BEYBLADE.
Entertainment and Licensing
Hasbro’s Entertainment and Licensing segment includes its lifestyle licensing, digital licensing, movie, television and online entertainment operations. The Company’s lifestyle licensing category focuses on its brands through the out-licensing of its intellectual properties to third parties for promotional and merchandising uses in businesses.
Global Operations
The Company’s Global Operations segment manufactures and sources production of all of its toy and game products. The Company owns and operates manufacturing facilities in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts and Waterford, and Ireland, which produce games and puzzles. Sourcing of its other production is done in various Far East countries, principally China, using a Hong Kong-based wholly owned subsidiary operation.
The Company competes with NICKELODEON and CARTOON NETWORK.

It was the Far East, however, which Hassenfeld saw as a critical market for Hasbro to develop. He gained two more distribution channels there in 1992 by purchasing Nomura Toys Ltd., based in Japan, and buying a majority stake in Palmyra, a Southeast Asian toy distributor. Thanks to these efforts, by 1995, Hasbro's international sales had reached $1.28 billion, which represented almost 45 percent of total sales, a significant increase over the 22 percent figure of 1985. More than 46 percent of the company's operating profit was attributable to operations outside the United States in 1995. One international setback came in 1993 when Hasbro lost out to arch-rival Mattel in a bid for J.W. Spear, a U.K.-based maker of games.
While international results were improving, Hasbro began to show some weaknesses on the domestic front. Much of the growth since 1980 had come from the company's various acquisitions, along with Hasbro's largely successful efforts to leverage the new assets it gained through the deals. Many new product development activities, on the other hand, were not as successful, with the exception of product lines developed to tie-in with the movie Jurassic Park and the popular children's television show Barney. As a result, domestic sales stagnated in the early 1990s, and actually fell from $1.67 billion in 1993 to $1.58 billion in 1995. And worldwide sales showed much slower growth as well. From 1991, the year of the Tonka acquisition, to 1995, sales increased only 33.5 percent, with half of the increase occurring in 1992 alone. To help improve the company's domestic performance, a reorganization was completed in 1994 that merged the Hasbro Toy, Playskool, Playskool Baby, Kenner, and Kid Dimension units into a new Hasbro Toy Group. Meanwhile, Mattel in 1993 acquired Fisher-Price and soon thereafter regained the number one spot in the toy industry.
Also contributing to Hasbro's challenges in the 1990s was its belated struggle to enter the market for electronic games. Eventually, in 1992, the company began development of a mass-market virtual reality game system. Although such a system was successfully developed, it was judged too expensive for the mass market and the project was abandoned in 1995, resulting in a charge of $31.1 million. In 1993, Hasbro bought a 15 percent stake in Virgin Interactive Entertainment, a producer of game software for Sega and Nintendo systems, with the intention of developing software based on Hasbro toys and games. Two years later, however, Hasbro dissolved the partnership and sold its stake.
A more promising venture began in 1995 with the establishment of Hasbro Interactive and the release of its first product that same year, a CD-ROM version of Monopoly. More than 180,000 units were sold in the first eight weeks following its release. Additional titles to be released in 1996 included Risk, Battleship, and Playskool-brand games.
In 1995, Mattel approached Hasbro about a possible merger of the two largest toy companies in the world. Negotiations took place in secret over the course of several months until the Hasbro board early in 1996 unanimously turned down a $5.2 billion merger proposal that would have given Hasbro stockholders a 73 percent premium over the then-current selling price. Hasbro officials expressed doubts that the merger could pass antitrust challenges and wanted a large upfront payment to help the company's performance during what would have likely been a lengthy antitrust review and to protect itself against the possibility that the merger would collapse. Mattel officials, on the other hand, maintained that the merger would have had little difficulty gaining approval, but backed away--and did not initiate a hostile takeover--when Hasbro waged a vigorous media campaign emphasizing the possible negative ramifications of such a mega-merger. Also clouding the deal was an ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation into alleged exclusionary policies between toy manufacturers and toy retailers, involving most notably the Toys "R" Us chain.
Having maintained its independence, Hasbro adopted a multipronged strategy for reinvigorating its performance as the turn of the century approached. Its strategies included leveraging its well-known brands in new ways; stepping up efforts to market electronic versions of established games, particularly through the Hasbro Interactive initiative; continuing to grow internationally; and bolstering new product development primarily through media tie-ins. Already planned for 1997 were several promising film tie-in prospects, including the movies Jurassic Park 2, Batman and Robin, and Barney, as well as the theatrical rerelease of Star Wars.
Principal Subsidiaries: Hasbro Foreign Sales Corp.; Hasbro International, Inc.; Milton Bradley Company; Playskool, Inc.; Romper Room Enterprises, Inc.; Tonka Corporation; Kenner Parker (Australia) Ltd.; Milton Bradley Australia Pty. Ltd.; Tonka Corp. Pty. Ltd. (Australia); Hasbro-MB S.A. (Belgium); Hasbro Canada Inc.; Kenner Parker Canada; Kenner Products (Canada) Limited (50%); Hasbro S.A. (France); Kenner Parker Toys (France; 70%); MB France S.A.; Kenner Parker Toys International (Germany); Milton Bradley GmbH (Germany); Hasbro Bradley Far East (1987) Ltd. (Hong Kong); Kenner Parker (H.K.) Ltd. (Hong Kong); Tonka Far East Limited (Hong Kong); MB Ireland; MB Italy S.r.l.; Tonka Italia S.p.A. (Italy); Nomura Toys Ltd. (Japan); Tonka Corp. (Mexico); Kenner Parker Toys (Netherlands); MB International B.V. (Netherlands); Kenner Parker (N.Z.) Ltd. (New Zealand); Milton Bradley (N.Z.) Ltd. (New Zealand); MB Espana, S.A. (Spain); MB (Switzerland) AG; Hasbro Bradley UK Limited; Hasbro Europe UK Limited; Kenner Parker Europe (U.K.); Tonka Europe, Limited (U.K.).
Principal Operating Units: Hasbro Games Group; Hasbro Toy Group.


OVERALL
Beta: 0.89
Market Cap (Mil.): $6,449.52
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 136.24
Annual Dividend: 1.20
Yield (%): 2.53
FINANCIALS
HAS.W Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 18.89 24.33 9.28
EPS (TTM): -8.71 -- --
ROI: 10.63 4.48 0.94
ROE: 22.24 4.72 1.62

Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1926 as Hassenfeld Brothers Incorporated
Employees: 13,000
Sales: $2.86 billion (1995)
Stock Exchanges: American London
SICs: 3942 Dolls & Stuffed Toys; 3944 Games, Toys & Children's Vehicles, Except Dolls & Bicycles; 5092 Toys & Hobby Goods & Supplies; 7812 Motion Picture & Video Tape Production

Name Age Since Current Position
Verrecchia, Alfred 68 2008 Chairman of the Board
Goldner, Brian 48 2008 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Thomas, Deborah 47 2009 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Hargreaves, David 58 2009 Chief Operating Officer
Trueb, Martin 58 1997 Senior Vice President, Treasurer
Finigan, Barbara 49 2010 Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary
Frascotti, John 50 2008 Global Chief Marketing Officer
Billing, Duncan 52 2008 Global Chief Development Officer
Hassenfeld, Alan 62 2008 Independent Director
Batkin, Alan 66 1992 Independent Director
Biondi, Frank 66 2002 Independent Director
Anderson, Basil 65 2002 Independent Director
Philip, Edward 45 2002 Independent Director
Greenberg, Jack 68 2003 Independent Director
Connors, John 68 2004 Independent Director
Garrett, Michael 69 2005 Independent Director
Bronfin, Kenneth 51 2008 Independent Director
Leinbach, Tracy 51 2008 Independent Director
Gersh, Lisa 52 2010 Independent Director

Address:
1027 Newport Avenue
Pawtucket, Rhode Island 02862-1059
U.S.A.
 
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