CD Projekt, the company behind The Witcher and retro game site GOG.com, is reportedly the target of a takeover by a Polish IT company – but the deal looks more like a “back door” entry to the stock market than an actual buyout.
The attempted takeover of CD Projekt by Warsaw-based IT company Optimus features an odd twist: The potential buyer, according to a report by Polygamia.pl, is “nearly defunct.” Why, then, is it making a move on CD Projekt, which by all appearances is doing quite well for itself and has a very bright future? Because CD Projekt wants it that way.
The deal will see Optimus buy all the shares of the CD Projekt Investment Group but rather than paying in cash, it will pay with shares in its own company. “Optimus will buy 100% of the whole CD Projekt Investment group, paying with its own shares, and de facto it’s the shareholders of CD Projekt that will be the owners of the new company, entering the Warsaw stock market over the ruins of Optimus,” explained Tomasz Grynkiewicz of wyborcza.biz. In essence, CD Projekt will continue to be owned by the same people but will become a publicly-traded company without having to go through any of the “necessary formalities” it would face normally.
It seems a bit sneaky to me, although I have no idea how stock market regulation works in Poland and this might all be perfectly kosher. (It might even be perfectly legal here, for all I know.) Whatever the case, if CD Projekt is able to back-door its way onto the Warsaw Exchange, it will open all sorts of new investment opportunities that could potentially lead to new franchise development, an expanded selection of titles on GOG and maybe even that console version of The Witcher you’ve always wanted.
via: Develop
Published: Oct 2, 2009 03:29 pm