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Pokemon lifts Hasbro's 1Q
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April 25, 2000: 12:46 p.m. ET
Popularity of toys tied to Japanese characters boosts company's 1Q sales
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Continued demand for all things Pokemon helped No. 2 U.S. toy maker Hasbro Inc. trample Wall Street's first-quarter earnings expectations Tuesday, as worldwide shipments of trading card games and other products based on the Japanese cartoon characters sparked a 16 percent increase in revenue.
 The Pawtucket, R.I.-based maker of Pokemon, Star Wars and Furby toys, reported first-quarter net earnings of $15.1 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with net earnings of $13.8 million, or 7 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
The company far exceeded Wall Street's consensus forecast of 1 cent a share, according to earnings tracker First Call/Thomson Financial.
Net sales for the quarter rose 16 percent to $773.5 million from $668.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
"Pokemania has taken international markets by storm and remains hot in the U.S.," said Alan Hassenfeld, Hasbro's chairman and chief executive officer. "The Furby franchise, now in its third year, is still very popular worldwide."
In addition to increased worldwide Pokemon shipments, sales of such core brands as Play Doh, Easy Bake, Lite Brite and traditional board games also had strong sales.
Hassenfeld also cited the successful buyback of 18.1 million company shares for more than $50 million as another reason for the quarterly improvement.
On the negative side, Hassenfeld said he does not expect a return to profitability in 2000 for the company's interactive games unit. Sales of interactive software games slipped to $22 million from $38 million in the year-ago quarter primarily because of a softening in overall demand for video, personal computer and CD-ROM business, Hassenfeld said.
Hasbro spent less than it anticipated on Games.com, its Internet games initiative, because of difficulty in staffing and building out the Web site, Hassenfeld said.
Set to launch this fall, Games.com will allow users to log on and compete against other players anywhere in the world in certain games.
 The company expects 5 percent revenue growth for the year and a 10 percent growth in earnings per share, excluding the underperformance of Games.com.
Shares of Hasbro (HAS: Research, Estimates) gained 1/8 to 15-7/8 in afternoon trading Tuesday. 
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