Thread regarding Mattel Inc. layoffs

Ill bet a years salary that SL comes through unscathed as per usual.

You have to love the panic at end of Christmas when we were promoting like crazy. The analysts were laughing at the meetings last week. It didn't happen to Hasbro. Don't we know shoppers are waiting later and later each year. Then we give money away the last week when it would have been sold anyway. #ineptMattel

the only thing whuppin' our asses is ourselves.

whatever it is it's whuppin our asses

What innovation has Hasbro created? The pie game? The dental apparatus game? C'mon........!

TRUTH:

At large, Mattel’s delay to meet a swiftly transforming consumer demand, in comparison to Hasbro’s aggressive product innovation, have seemed to set the two apart in the toy and game industry

I have a feeling the next week is going to make the red wedding seem like a tea party.

last poster: You think a comment about eating boogers is defending Mattel? What in the hell is there to defend:

1) We lost Disney Princesses to Hasbro because of our own arrogance

2) We didn't make our number, even after all the cuts and promises from management

3) We still paid out a dividend we can't afford

4) There is NO BUZZ on anything we brought to ToyFair

Correct me, but where are the analysts wrong? Regardless of what the toy industry as a whole did, the shift in power and accomplishment is happening before our eyes:

• Mattel used to be be $6.5 Billion, and Hasbro used to be $4.5 Billion

• in 2016: Mattel is $5.4 Billion and Hasbro is at $5.1 Billion

Yeah - we've got a lot to defend alright.

Last poster: it appears that the poster prior to you was actually defending mattel. shut up and learn to read. Or was that something that they never got to during your short bus education?

Last poster: it's amazing that your comments prove that the caveman hasn't gone instinct. Maybe you should take yourself down to the National History Museum and put yourself on display and simply spout your antiquated and uneducated thoughts about business, brands and retail. You know nothing - including when you're an embarrassment.

the street reports that mattels dismal Q4 might have assisted in the massacre at TRU that cut 250 employees at its corporate HQ this past week. of course the author makes it seem like mattel is the ONLY. brand that they carry. maybe if they had sales associates that didn't spend their entire education riding the short bus they'd have people pushing product instead of eating one another's boogers.

Street has lost confidence. Margo must move swiftly, to not join the club. She is already being hosed by the inept legacy crew.

let's see what the re-org brings. i'm sure many people have been passing out CV's at javitts. Actually saw a current Mattel former spinmaster shmoozing to get back in and back to cali.

The original poster was right: The Management Team spoke to analysts and the stock went DOWN. Rise up and force them out! Let's make March 1st MATTEL MATTERS day and walk out! :)

Why do you Millenials think so highly of yourselves? You haven't actually done ANYTHING. Maybe you should be doing something about that rather than spend your time complaining about the older generation who HAS done something - actually, they've done a lot. Just sayin'.....

BTW, 5 cars, what do you own:

A Volvo?

A Saab?

A Prius?

A VW beetle?

A PT Cruiser?

LOL!!!!!!

your hotwheels don't count :)

So why all the anger 5 cars?

millenial? hahaha, when did you learn that word? its just a new word for hippie to you. poor soul who is scared of the times moving too fast for you to cope with. you keep thinking there are good ole' days to go back to. that's the problem with people from your generation. s---ing on the teat of social security thinking that ages spent in mediocrity is worth more than a short time of excellence. your political allegiance shows your true nature and that is your fear. your fear that all that time you spent doing whatever you were doing meant anything, and finding out no one cares. don't be scared grampa. dt will make america great again. maybe they'll even ask you to come back and show these whippersnappers a thing or two. and by the way i own my own home, take care of my mom, got 5 cars and still play video games. prune juice.

LOL - Millenials - you gotta just love 'em. Undeveloped minds, entitled behavior. Guess what? You're all gonna be "retired" too someday, but the funny thing is you'll still be living in Mom's house playing video games and scraping up change you find in the street to get your Starbuck's. Know why? Because your generation was raised on "participation" trophy's and the like. You don't know how to work or even to evaluate your value to society. Good luck! I retire with more money and happiness than you'll ever have! :)

Why am I on this site? Because I crave entertainment and to read how you all whine and complain is almost as fun as watching Liberals' heads explode every time the president makes another move. Just priceless!

Hey don't be butthurt if you like dishing it but be too sensitive to take it. your age is only a number that is unfortunately the same as your IQ. go watch the golden girls and take your laxative

ageist jerks...we're all trolls...look in the mirror...what's worse a retired troll or a young failure troll? you'd think the young would have a fuller life?

Oh a lifer who was "retired". Someone whose mediocre 40 year performance that was once tolerated and later found to be sorely lacking of the requirements of the 21st century. enjoy your middling options for your days are long behind you and your dreams of glory are sadly over only to be relived in your alcohol addled memories.

Agree. How sad is your retired life that you're still trolling here

Retired and still on this site......pathetic.

I would like to personally thank mattel management for that dividend payout. my stocks options from the past 40 years of service have reaped a nice little bump in my retirement coffer. Sorry not sorry if this hampers your productivity or bonuses. quite honestly when i retired i thought the quality of work coming out of the office was akin to panicked employees trying to remove water from a sinking ship with tea cups. your lack of fight and passion shows.

Look at what Mattel just did: Stock plummets to the mid-20's and they give 5.9% dividends because they fear a further drop in the stock. Translation: They just took your PD and Marketing budgets and slashed them to pay institutional investors. Not the strategy of someone investing in brands or innovation.

I don't think the poster meant not to invest in Hasbro, but to understand that the value is inflated when you look deeper at their business. Some news reports state that Frozen was the reason of Hasbro's earnings success and even that Frozen is more popular (meaning = sell more units) than Barbie. We all know Frozen has been dropping by 30-40% each year for the last 2 years, so that particular comment isn't true.

I guess if the whole industry was down and Hasbro was only up because it had Disney Princess, then it's good for them. But $94 a share - hmmmmm, what happens this year when they have to anniversary those numbers?

do you need to be a genius to see the simple math? Mattel looked like an attractive stock in the past because of the dividend yield and the success it had. Looking at the current financials and Mattel's current trend leads many to believe that the dividend is not sustainable. Comparison to Hasbro only makes the argument against investing in Mattel stronger.

nobody is entitled to be inept

Last poster...I disagree...not what the change in eps tell me...there's more to it than spinning and, in your opinion, young inept institutional investors...but we're all entitled to our opinion even if we're not geniuses like you...no need to insult people genius...

Hey, Geniuses:

The entire global toy industry was down last year because of lack of blockbuster, merchandise-driving entertainment (no Star Wars Ep. 7, and Frozen went off the radar). Every toy company reported mediocre to poor earnings - even Hasbro.

If you peel back the onion you'll note that without Disney Princesses, they would've been down double digits without Star Wars Ep. 7 and no Transformers movie. They aren't smarter - they just know how to spin the simple fact that they have a property that used to be with Mattel. If Mattel still had Disney Princesses we would have still been on flat or down a couple of points.

The institutional investors (who are all 20-30 somethings and unaware of the simple dynamics at play here) failed to see this simple shell game. Be careful of what you read.

Analysts should ask him what he knows now that he didn't know after 18 years as a board member and after running the company and what he thinks of Hasbro's challenge of Mattel's excuses for 4Q...he was very publicly critical of Mattel when he got himself installed and he portrayed that he had all the answers...my guess is he'll hang on and take as much as he can...and the new CEO who he hired (and the board) will probably let him do it...

This management team is a group that employees have no confidence in, now the analysts and soon the shareholders. They are hanging around waiting for the payout once they are gone. Bad position for the company and employees. Hopefully to be fixed soon for all of us.

I only wish it was "scary insight" (whatever the hell that is....), but it's really just common sense, which the Management lacks. Last year there was a PLAN to bridge the gap. The Management Team put that plan together and told Wall Street " we got this", knowing full well their assumptions were not based in fact, just hope. Hope is not a strategy, and I at least, hold the Management Team accountable for their lack of execution of their plan. When you lead a team, there is only achievement, not "trying". Trying is for children learning to grow, not adults.

To the earlier poster....you nailed the name right from the get-go. It's Braveheart and the middle name's FREEDOM!! Which you're going to have plenty of soon with the way things are going here, along with the originator of this thread. He'll then be free to go turn around Jakks with all his scary insight. Oh wait, I heard they're not hiring either. Hmmm.....tough world.

@yif, sharing personal info not allowed here, anyways. Check it yourself, read the site rules at the page footer.

Do you want to know what the best part about no longer being employed by mattel is? Not having to have family and friends ask me what the hot toy of the year will be and having to point to a competitors product.

the idea that the leadership has to spin data to analysts is truly a desperate attempt to stay afloat and avoid more financial institutions from giving mattel a sell rating. at what point do these ding dongs at the top realize that you don't cut from the bottom at this point?

Every person who knows anything about play patterns, price points, and product development knew the Thingmaker was pure BS to try and WOW the know-nothings who cover Toy Fair. It was never going to be produced.

Sadly, some of our management didn't know the difference either.

Maybe they'll offer up SL and RD to lighten the load... oh well one can hope at least.

Last NYTF, Mattel promised the Thingmaker 3D printer by Christmas with great pomp & circumstance. Then they quietly dropped it. Cringeworthy. Add the rest of Mattel's shameful year to that and it's a wonder anyone takes us seriously any more. Can't wait to see what the next debacle is and how entrenched management will continue to fail upwards, paying for their stupidity by laying off more little people.

Why don't YOU be the first one to give your name, Braveheart