I gotta admit I felt some relief after the announcement of the Q3 results. The numbers are still far from good, but at least we managed to slow the free fall down, and showed some progress. Hope that this trend continues into the holiday season and the numbers look even better in Q4, so we can go into the new year feeling a little more safe for our jobs.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/25/mattel-earnings-q3-2018.html
YK and his crew did a good job of spinning the numbers, but let's be clear: there was no topline growth. The "growth" CNBC refers to is operating income, and the growth there is driven by aggressive cost cutting. Improved OI is definitely a good thing, but it's not the same as revenue growth. In fact, overall Mattel's revenue was down 8%, and every brand (except Barbie) was down year-over-year. This is against a not very good Q3 2017. Accordingly, the company's stock temporarily surged in after-hours trading, but is down significantly following the Q3 earnings report.
The bright spots are Barbie and aggressive cost cutting.
We are not through with the 2200 job cuts so it’s not over yet
Right, Trump is responsible for Mattel's business troubles. 🙄
Mattel had a chance but Trump's trade war will kill us. Trump talks about the tariffs as if China is paying them. Tariffs are paid in the US by importers or by us. As long as Trump is in power, Mattel is in trouble. Luckily, Trump gave corporations tax breaks that although it created the biggest increase in debt from any government action ever, it let Mattel die more slowly. Who do you think will end up repaying the debt? Also, how are we winning against china by Mattel paying import duties and higher debt that requires more borrowing from china? It's too bad that trump supporters are low information voters and don't realize this.
It’s up hill from here 😀