Alta Fox Capital Management LLC, which owns 2.5% of Hasbro’s stock, is sending a letter to Hasbro stockholders urging a spinoff of Wizards of the Coast, which it argues would be worth as much as all of Hasbro on its own, potentially doubling the value for Hasbro shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reports. Hasbro’s market cap is currently around $13 billion.
As a way to gain a voice for its views, Alta Fox is nominating five directors to the Hasbro board of directors; the board will be elected at the company’s annual meeting this spring.
The news comes in the wake of Hasbro’s latest earnings report, in which it revealed Wizards of the Coast’s sales had passed $1 billion for the first time, and that it sold roughly $950 million in tabletop games (Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons) in the year (see “WotC Sold Over $950 Million in Tabletop Games in 2021“). WotC’s tabletop game sales grew at a blistering 44% rate in 2021. The division that includes WotC and digital gaming accounted for 72% of Hasbro’s operating profit for the year.
Source: ICv2