The story
Hassenfeld Brothers
Three Polish-Jewish brothers, Herman, Hillel, and Henry Hassenfeld, founded Hassenfeld Brothers in Providence, Rhode Island, in late 1923, a company selling textile remnants. Over the next two decades, the company expanded to produce pencil cases and school supplies. On January 8, 1926, Hassenfeld Brothers was incorporated in Rhode Island; Hillel left for another textile business while Henry took charge of the corporation. They began making their own pencils after their pencil supplier began making pencil cases as well.
Hassenfeld Brothers produced modeling clay and then doctor and nurse kits as their first toys, and they became primarily a toy company by 1942. Hillel died in 1943 and Henry Hassenfeld became CEO, while his son Anthony Merrill became president. The company entered the plastic fields during World War II to support its toy line. The Hassenfeld brothers, immigrants from Ulanów, Poland, also spent the war years helping to rescue and employ fellow Jews from Ulanów; Jacob Klapper, a Holocaust survivor born in Ulanów, recalled being told when he arrived in the United States that Hassenfeld Brothers would employ any survivor from Ulanów, no questions asked. Hassenfeld Brothers' first popular toy was Mr. Potato Head, which the company purchased from George Lerner in 1952. In 1954, the company became a Disney major licensee.
In 1960, Henry died and Merrill took over the parent company, and his older brother Harold ran the pencil-making business of Empire Pencil. Hassenfeld Brothers expanded to Canada with Hassenfeld Brothers (Canada) Ltd. in 1961.
In 1962, Hasbro purchased the former Potter & Johnston manufacturing company building on Newport Avenue in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Pawtucket plant facilities were eventually expanded to over 300,000 square feet.
In 1963 the company introduced Flubber, but reports of sore throats and rashes from the product and knock-offs prompted an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration and a voluntary recall by Hassenfeld Brothers. The company was approached in 1963 to license a toy based on The Lieutenant, which they turned down because they did not want to be tied to a possibly short-lived television series. Instead, Hassenfeld Brothers produced the G.I. Joe toy in 1964 which they termed an "action figure" in order to market it to boys who would not want to play with dolls. In 1964 and 1965, G.I. Joe accounted for two-thirds of Hassenfeld's sales.
Hasbro Industries
The company had previously sold toys under the Hasbro trade name, and it shortened its name to Hasbro Industries on July 12, 1968, and sold a minor stake in the corporation to the public. The Vietnam War was at its height in 1969, so Hasbro redesigned GI Joe to be less militaristic and more adventure-oriented. Its promotional efforts included the catchphrase "Boy Oh Boy! It's A Hasbro Toy!" in television commercials and print ads. Also in 1969, Hasbro bought Burt Claster Enterprises which produced "Romper Room" and had just begun a Romper Room toy line. A month-long Teamsters strike and Far Eastern supplier troubles caused the company to post a $1 million loss for the year.
In 1970, Hasbro began a plan of diversification and opened the Romper Room Nursery School franchise chain to cash in on President Richard Nixon's Family Assistance Plan which subsidized day care for working mothers. By 1975, the company had ended the nursery chain. Hasbro also entered the cookware field with the Galloping Gourmet line based on a television cooking show.
Two new 1970s toys were public relations disasters. One of the toys was named Javelin Darts which were similar to the ancient Roman plumbata. On December 19, 1988, the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lawn darts from sale in the United States due to their hazards as a flying projectile with a sharp metal point causing multiple deaths. The other toy was named The Hypo-Squirt, a hypodermic needle-shaped water gun tagged by the press as a "junior junkie" kit. Both were recalled. Romper Room and its toy line had continued success, although Action for Children's Television citizens group considered the program to be an advertising channel for toys.
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Merrill Hassenfeld took over as CEO in 1974, and his son Stephen D. Hassenfeld became president. The company became profitable once again but had mixed results due to cash flow problems from increasing the number of toys in the line to offset G.I. Joe's declining sales. Hasbro ended the G.I. Joe line in 1975 because of the rising prices of plastic and crude oil. In 1977, Hasbro's losses were $2.5 million, and the company held a large debt load. That same year, Hasbro acquired licensing rights to Peanuts cartoon characters. With the financial situation poor, Hasbro's bankers made the company temporarily stop dividend payments in early 1979. The toy division's losses increased Harold Hassenfeld's resentment regarding the company's treatment of the Empire Pencil subsidiary as Empire received lower levels of capital spending relative to profits than did the toy division.
With Merrill's death in 1979, Harold did not recognize Stephen's authority as the successor to the chairman and CEO position. As a solution, Hasbro spun off Empire Pencil in 1980, which was the nation's largest pencil maker, with Harold trading his Hasbro shares for those of Empire. Stephen then became both the CEO and chairman of the board. Between 1978 and 1981, Stephen reduced the Hasbro product line by one-third and its new products by one-half. Hasbro focused on simple, low-cost, longer life-cycle toys like Mr. Potato Head. Hasbro thus stayed out of the electronic games field which went bust in the early 1980s.
In 1982, Hasbro revived its G.I. Joe line with the help of Marvel Comics, as an anti-terrorist special forces team based on current events. Following an interest in Takara's Diaclone and Micro Change toylines in the 1983 International Tokyo Toy Show, the company licensed the toylines and subsequently launched the successful Transformers toy line along with a children's animated TV series two years later. With the toys and TV series being popular, Stephen Hassenfeld posed with the toys for a People magazine cover photo.
In 1982, Hasbro produced the successful toy franchise My Little Pony. In 1983, they purchased GLENCO Infant Items, a manufacturer of infant products and the world's largest bib producer, and Knickerbocker Toy Company, a struggling Warner Communications subsidiary. Hasbro paid 37% of its stock to Warner, which was paid into Hasbro's executive-controlled voting trust, and also received a cash infusion. In 1984, Alan G. Hassenfeld took over as president from his brother Stephen, who continued as CEO and chairman. That same year, the company was the nation's sixth best-selling toymaker, and then acquired the Milton Bradley Company, which was the nation's fifth best-selling toymaker. This brought The Game of Life, Twister, Easy Money, and Playskool into the Hasbro fold and on September 10 transformed Hasbro into Hasbro Bradley. Stephen Hassenfeld became the merged company's president and CEO, with Milton Bradley chief James Shea Jr. taking the chairman position. However, the executives clashed and Shea left after a few months, and Stephen and Alan returned to their previous positions.
1985–2007
On June 6, 1985, the company changed its name again to just Hasbro, Inc. The Jumpstarters toys were the subject of a lawsuit in 1985 when Hasbro sued a toy manufacturer for selling toys based on their Transformers design. Hasbro won the suit.
In the mid-1980s, Hasbro moved past Mattel to become the world's largest toy company. Hasbro then moved to outsell Mattel's Barbie in the fashion doll market with the 1986 introduction of Jem, a record producer/rock musician dual identity fashion doll. Jem initially posted strong sales but plummeted and was withdrawn from the market in 1987. Hasbro followed up in 1988 with Maxie, a Barbie-sized blonde doll, so that Barbie clothing and accessories would fit. Maxie lasted until 1990.
Under Alan's initiative in the late 1980s, Hasbro moved to increase international sales by taking toys overseas that had failed in the US market and selling them for as much as four times the original price. This increased international sales from $268 million in 1985 to $433 million in 1988.
In 1988, Hasbro purchased part of Coleco Industries' indoor and outdoor children's furniture and ride-on toy product lines for $21 million including two just-closed manufacturing plants in Amsterdam, New York. In July 1989, Hasbro acquired bankrupt Coleco for $85 million. Stephen Hassenfeld died later that year with the company having gone from sales of $104 million in the year he took control to 1989 sales of over $1.4 billion.
Alan succeeded Stephen as chairman and CEO. In 1991, Hasbro purchased Tonka Corp. for $486 million, along with its units Parker Brothers, the maker of Monopoly, and Kenner Products. Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers were merged into one division. Alan moved to expand Hasbro overseas with new units in Greece, Hungary, and Mexico.
Alan saw the Far East as an important market to expand. In 1992, Hasbro purchased Nomura Toys Ltd. in Japan, and majority ownership of Palmyra, a Southeast Asian toy distributor. These increased the proportion of international sales from 22% in 1985 to 45% ($1.28 billion) in 1995. In 1993, Hasbro lost its bid for J. W. Spear & Sons, a U.K.-based game maker, to Mattel.
In the US, Hasbro's growth since 1980 was from acquisitions and the leveraging of the new assets. New product development was not as successful except for film and TV tie-in product lines with Jurassic Park and Barney. Thus, US sales were stagnant in the early 1990s, falling from 1993 to 1995. To turn domestic performance around in 1994, Hasbro merged the Hasbro Toy, Playskool, Playskool Baby, Kenner, and Kid Dimension units into the Hasbro Toy Group. Meanwhile, Mattel purchased Fisher-Price and retook the top spot in the toy industry.
Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 to allow Hasbro to enter the video game market, with its first major release being the Monopoly game on CD-ROM. Mattel also proposed a merger that year, but was turned down by the Hasbro board in 1996 due to antitrust issues and Justice Department investigation into exclusionary policies between toy manufacturers and toy retailers, particularly Toys "R" Us.
In 1998, Hasbro bought Avalon Hill for $6 million and Galoob for $220 million. That same year, Milton Bradley merged with Parker Bros. to form Hasbro Games. In 1999, Hasbro paid $325 million for rights to Pokémon toys. The same year, Wizards of the Coast was bought in a deal worth $325 million. Wizards of the Coast is now a subsidiary of Hasbro and has Avalon Hill as its division. In 2001 money-losing Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames, a French software concern, for $100 million. Hasbro entered the building block toy with its Built to Rule line in 2003, which did not hold together well or were too hard for the targeted age group, thus ended in 2005.
In 2004, the company entered into a deal with Paramount Home Entertainment to release its programs based on its games and toys on VHS and DVD.
In 2006, Hasbro released the Hasbro iON, an educational home video game console.
2008–2018
In 2008, Hasbro acquired game maker Cranium, Inc. for $77.5 million. The deal was announced on January 4 and closed on January 25.
Hasbro and Universal Pictures signed an agreement in February 2008 to derive four films from seven Hasbro properties for production. In May, Bennett Schneir was hired to lead its Hasbro Films division, while Hasbro also reacquired series based on their properties from Sunbow Productions.
The year of his promotion to CEO of Hasbro, Brian Goldner was named CEO of the year by News Corporation affiliate website MarketWatch.com. Goldner became the first person not from the founding Hassenfeld family to hold the position.
In 2009, the Milton Bradley and Parker Bros. brands were retired after 25 years and eighteen years of Hasbro ownership respectively. That same year, Hasbro Studios was formed for TV development, production and distribution. On December 11, 2012, Hasbro transferred all entertainment divisions to Hasbro Studios, including their LA-based film group, and Cake Mix Studio, the company's Rhode Island–based producer of commercials and short form content.
Hasbro collaborated with Discovery on The Hub, a cable television network targeting younger children and families, which launched on October 10, 2010. The venture found unexpected success with the revival of the My Little Pony franchise, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, which became the network's highest-rated program and attracted a significant cult following among teens and adults. The Hub was renamed Hub Network in 2013, and was rebranded again as Discovery Family on October 13, 2014. In 2013, Hasbro renewed its deal to produce Marvel Comics and Star Wars toys through at least 2020.
In 2011, Greenpeace accused Hasbro of purchasing paper for its packaging from ancient forests in Indonesia. Hasbro changed its paper purchasing policy, earning the company praise from Greenpeace executive director Phil Radford, who said: "The new Hasbro policy will also increase the recycled and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper in its toy packaging. Hasbro's new commitments are great news for Indonesian rainforests and the people and wildlife that depend on them."
By April 2011, Hasbro started 360 Manufacturing Services, a contract OEM game manufacturing operating out of Hasbro's nearly 1,000,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, United States. Having been absent from the building block market since the failure of the Built to Rule line, Hasbro re-entered the market with the Kre-O line in late 2011, starting with some Transformers-based sets.
In 2012, Hasbro received a $1.6 million tax credit from the state of Rhode Island with a promise to create 245 new jobs in the state. Instead, they laid off more than 125 workers. This was followed in 2013 with further layoffs of North American workers, amounting to 10% of its salaried employees. Meanwhile, CEO Brian Goldner signed a new five-year contract. As of fiscal year 2012, Goldner had a total calculated compensation of $9,684,285. On July 9, 2013, Backflip Studios sold a 70% stake in the company to Hasbro for $112 million in cash.
On November 6, 2012, it was rumored that Disney was discussing a multi-billion dollar deal to acquire Hasbro. While Hasbro declined to discuss the rumor, advisors stated there was "absolutely nothing going on" they knew of between the two companies. Additionally, financial analysts said the deal was illogical, as the rumor came out just a week after Disney had bought out Lucasfilm.
Hasbro was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, citing that the "company enhanced its vacation policy by giving new employees three weeks off in their first year instead of having to wait five years."
On November 12, 2014, it was reported that Hasbro was in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation. The proposal reportedly calls for the combined company to take the name "DreamWorks-Hasbro" and for Jeffrey Katzenberg to become its chairman, but as a matter of policy, neither Hasbro nor DreamWorks publicly comment on mergers and acquisitions. Two days later, the talks were reported to have fallen through. The company has been owned by Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal since 2016.
On July 14, 2015, the company announced the intent to sell its last two factories, in Waterford, Ireland and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts (including its 360 Manufacturing Services), to Cartamundi. The deal was set to close in sixty days. Hasbro signed a five-year deal with Cartamundi to produce their board games at the East Longmeadow plant.
With Mattel adding two competing lines, and the expiration of their Disney Princess license at the end of 2015, Disney gave Hasbro a chance to gain the license given their work on Star Wars, which led to a Descendants license. DCP was also attempting to evolve the brand from one of them less as damsels and more as heroines. In September 2014, Disney announced that Hasbro would be the doll licensee for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016.
On July 13, 2016, Hasbro acquired Dublin-based Boulder Media Limited and placed it under the control of its chief content officer. Hasbro announced that it would launch its own convention, named HasCon, and featuring "all things Hasbro" in 2016, with the inaugural event being held at the Rhode Island Convention Center in September 2017.
On November 15, 2017, Mattel rejected an offer from the company. At the time, Mattel's worth was $5 billion, while Hasbro's worth was about $11 billion. On February 27, 2018, Variety reported in a detailed article that Hasbro came close to buying Lionsgate (now Starz Entertainment), exploring options to expand its entertainment division and bolster its content production capabilities due to interest in film and television ventures, but the deal fell through.
2018–2021
On February 16, 2018, Saban Brands appointed Hasbro as the global master toy licensee for Power Rangers with a future collaboration and option to purchase the franchise. On May 1, 2018, Hasbro agreed to purchase Power Rangers and other entertainment assets from Saban Brands for $522 million in cash and stock with the licensing fee recently paid with credit. The sale, which also collaborated with My Pet Monster, Popples, Julius Jr., Treehouse Detectives and additional properties, was expected to close in the second quarter until it was finished with Saban's collab. On October 19, 2018, the company announced plans to cut jobs amounting to less than 10% of its 5,000-plus global workforce in response to changes in how consumers buy toys.
In 2018, Hasbro signed a number of licensing agreements for hospitality deals based on Hasbro brands. On May 1, 2018, the Monopoly Mansion hotel agreement was announced by Hasbro, with M101 Holdings overseeing construction and M101's Sirocco Group assigned to manage the hotel when it opened in 2019. Later in May 23, 2018 launched the lost kitties franschise. Lost Kitties were cat figures hidden in milk cartons. Hasbro granted Kingsmen Creatives a license to build a chain of NERF Action Xperience family entertainment centers, with the first to be opened in Singapore in fall/winter 2019. In November, the company issued a license for family entertainment centers to Kilburn Live, who were to launch a new division for the centers. That December, the company granted a license for theme parks to Imagine Resorts and Hotels, co-founded by Bruce Neviaser. Neviaser had previously co-founded Great Lakes Companies, which launched Great Wolf Resorts indoor waterpark resorts. On December 18, 2019, Hasbro and West Edmonton Mall announced that Galaxyland would get a makeover, with rides being redone and renamed Hasbro properties. Construction was begun later that month and is ongoing as of 2026.
On August 22, 2019, Hasbro announced its purchase of Entertainment One for about US$4 billion. The deal was completed on December 30, 2019. On October 24, 2019, Hasbro announced the closing of Backflip Studios, while its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary purchased Tuque Games in October. On February 28, 2020, Hasbro announced that Campbell Arnott's former CMO David McNeil had joined the company as the managing director for Pacific operations. On September 30, 2020, Renegade Game Studios announced they had acquired licensing for creating tabletop games for multiple Hasbro brands. Several of the games would be using the 5E role-playing system owned by Wizards of the Coast.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hasbro, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7