Hasbro announces new CEO

Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi discusses Chris Cocks taking over as the new CEO of Hasbro.

Video transcript

- Hasbro is getting a new chief executive and maybe a direction-- a sign of the direction of the company. It's the head of the digital gaming division. Brian Sozzi, you watch this company closely. Tell us about this transition.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, Chris Cocks. We just had him on the show November 3rd. He has led the Wizards of the Coast business. That is the surging digital business for Hasbro. Through the first nine months of the year, Wizards of the Coast have racked up one-- a little over $1 billion in sales. Sales were up 50% year over year.

Chris joined the company in 2016. He originally spent a lot of time at Microsoft, working on various aspects of Xbox. But all in all, Chris gets high marks from inside the company based on those who I've talked to.

And just anecdotally, Julie. When we talked to him, he looked and sounded like a toy guy. Which, of course, is very important when you're running a toy company like Hasbro. So good for Chris.

- Yeah, makes sense. And, of course, we should remind folks that unfortunately the naming of Cocks was necessary following the untimely death of Brian Goldner back in October. So just a side note to remind people of that. The shares, not doing much this morning.