This is the public announcement. They haven’t bought them, they’ve made an offer to purchase the shares at 43% above what they were trading at on the Friday Close that the board are recommended should be accepted. Still need shareholder approval and government approval
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Ah ok so it could fall through if let’s say the shareholders say no? would this be when MS could come and say well we will offer you 48%? I thought it was a done deal haha.
Technically speaking, someone could make another offer prior to the board/share holders approval. Similar to how take two had agreed to buy codemasters then EA swooped in with a better deal.
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Hard to say for now, but if they are up for sell, in parts or the whole thing. Microsoft would definitely crunch the numbers to see if it does make sense.
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Was the deal with Take two so advanced like the deal with Tencent now?
I don’t remember reading a statement from Codemasters at the time.
I meany take two issued a press release saying they were buying codemasters for 994 million dollars. It doesn’t get any more advanced then that.
They basically went the grocery store, had the cart full groceries and was in the process of getting checked out when someone else came in paid for the groceries and left with them.
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Possibly but highly unlikely. At that markup it’s almost a guarantee that the shareholders approve unless there enough shares in the hands of people who think the company is undervalued but looking at the P/E ratio and ebitda it looks a good deal for them
oh i never said it was likely. I was just saying someone still could. Nothings official till the paperwork is signed and the i’s dotted t’s crossed and all that. Being its a 43 percent markup for a collection of studios with no major owned ip its doubtful but not unheard of. Government approval is teh only real hurdle.
yep. I am aware that MS looking for regional expansion. So european and Japanese studios are possible targets too
No idea why people are getting bent out of shape about this Sumo deal from an Xbox perspective.
Sumo has jade a handful of good games, but the vast majority of their studios are support studios whose business is renting out their people’s labor fir a profit, rather than being producing games. There’s nothing wrong with that business, but Xbox needs the latter type of studio.
Can’t say I’m not disappointed though. I wanted my in-house Kart and Crackdown team!
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More Tencent acquisitions:
The Brittish Govt has to give approval,they could decline the sale.
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Tencent bought Sumo Group or Sumo Digital?
Sumo Digital is one of the Group’s subsidiaries. Sumo Group consists of 14 studios and over 1,000 employees. Insomniac was a single studio with around 200 employees at the time, if my memory serves right.
Sumo Digital would have been a nice get for Xbox, but I don’t see how Microsoft would be interested on the group as a whole.
they bought the group yeah
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That explains the price and why Microsoft wasn’t much interested on this particular acquisition, then
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Really you all are barking up the wrlng tree. If we learned anything from the bethesda sale was, that they bought the one not on the radar. They were in and out of talks for 3 years, and very few leaks. I do not see a 2 trillion dollar bohemeth messing with sumo corp. It will be somebody noteworthy. Tencent is doing what the china real estate market does ,you know their ghost new cities that arecempty and eventually collapse due to shoddy construction. They kind of like enforcer, both will get too big with a lot of mediocre studios that will collapse.
If Ascent is a hit then I hope Microsoft makes a move for Neon Giant
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I think there’s two things behind the chatter:
- It’s easily the most realistic target among the major publishers: the size is reasonable, it’s not Japanese so no regulatory / culture issues, and it’s owner has massive debt and could presumably be open to offloading a non-core business for the right price.
- It’s a really good fit for MS: They could benefit immensely from having a premier fighting game studio (and presumably the MK IP), and the remaining studios do third-person action/adventure and E-rated fare that’s a bit of a hole in MS’ existing first-party stable.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure there’s a better acquisition out there. I know there’s definitely bigger IP that can be acquired, but in terms of a collection of really rock solid studios this would be right there with Bethesda.
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