Is Funko A Sinking Ship?!?

[JayC]

Late last year Funko which is a publicly traded company took a bit of a sizeable hit with it's stocks when they missed earnings estimates in its third-quarter earnings report. In December of last year the company made a number of changes with it's management teams which included bringing back Brian Mariotti as CEO who replaced Andrew Perlmutter. Marriotti had been CEO for a number of years starting back in 2005 when he and other investors bought out the company. Andrew Perlmutter became CEO last year and remains at the company as President as well as remaining on the on the board of directors.

So fast-forward to now. The YouTuber team Gastlecast which runs a channel that focuses on the world of Funko POP! figures has made two videos this week talking about things that have allegedly been going on within the company based on information they say comes from insiders there, and it doesn't paint very pretty picture.

It needs to be noted that the alleged claims in these videos being made about Funko seem to be coming from former employee's of the company who are likely disgruntled and reached out to these two YouTubers to voice their grievances against the company. In other words we are hearing one side of the story and whether Funko at any point issues any kind of statements giving their side of it is unknown.

Highlights of the claims made against Funko in these videos that stood out to me:

- The entire Funko Social Media team was recently let go

- People who were laid off from Funko in 2020 during the pandemic where not given any kind of severance packages

- Brian Mariotti allegedly gave himself a $2 million dollar bonus

- Funko has let go a good portion of their artistic team recently

- The art department made a petition asking for safer working conditions and higher wages

- Funko artists found out they were making roughly $10-$20k less than the industry standard

- The safer working conditions was in regards to being forced to do mandatory overtime

- Reis O'Brien, Sean Wilkinson and Benjamin Butcher no longer with the company after trying to stand up for the art department

- Scott Yessner brought in as interim CFO (Which he was in December) being paid $38k a week

[benmiller]

Sounds like most corporations.  Stock price drops pay the guys at the top more and screw everyone else.  Stock price goes up guys at the top get paid even more and everyone else still gets screwed.

[Artoyz]

Nah Funko is fine and will be fine. Same theory/rumors of going out of business that has been circling for years now. And still rapid fans and sales. Do their practices suck? Yes!.. but name a major player in the toy industry that hasn't had to cut jobs based on costs (not mattervthe reason) just to come back stronger. Or different.

Life is a game.. you gamble and sometimes you lose. Hope the people laid off find new jobs quickly!

[McYote]

Their sales may go down but they aren’t going anywhere. Funko is by far the biggest collectible brand outside of LEGO and is definitely the most accessible to casual fans. They’ll recover 

[JayC]

15 hours ago, McYote said:

Their sales may go down but they aren’t going anywhere. Funko is by far the biggest collectible brand outside of LEGO and is definitely the most accessible to casual fans. They’ll recover 

Funko is no where near the size of LEGO. I agree they arent going away, but they have struggled quit a bit on Wall Street. My guess someone larger will eventually buy them out.

[Kylekirwan]

I won't believe a single word from a video with a thumbnail like this. Clickbait nonsense. 

[JayC]

19 hours ago, Kylekirwan said:

I won't believe a single word from a video with a thumbnail like this. Clickbait nonsense. 

If they are lying then they have opened themselves up to lawsuit. As I mentioned in the post their info seems to be coming from former employee's who may have a bit slanted view, but doesnt sound like a fun place to work these days. And no I wouldnt have posted it if I just thought it was click bait.

 

[memocromatico]

This is the issue I have with massive corporations and businesspeople. They don't care about anything BUT profit. I understand you have to make a living out of your projects... but this isn't their project... they just make money off of it, and when it stops making the rich richer they make it a tragedy and shut it down. 

[MagnaPrime]

Sinking, no, leaking, yeah probably.  A corporate merger with someone like jazzwares is more likely than total disappearing.

[JayC]

10 hours ago, MagnaPrime said:

Sinking, no, leaking, yeah probably.  A corporate merger with someone like jazzwares is more likely than total disappearing.

Sounds like they are gutting the place trying to cut their expenses as much as possible to make their profit numbers look better on the spreadsheet for Wall Street. To me that might be a viable short-term strategy especially if your hope is to make yourself more attractive to perspective buyers, but what do I know, I'm certainly not a CEO who gets 2 million dollar bonuses or anything close.

[Batfreak87]

On 1/22/2023 at 1:14 PM, benmiller said:

Sounds like most corporations.  Stock price drops pay the guys at the top more and screw everyone else.  Stock price goes up guys at the top get paid even more and everyone else still gets screwed.

This is so true. 

[Batfreak87]

In my view- yes seems like funko is a sinking ship with little morale going on.