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[Poll] Who will NCsoft Buy? (M&A)
sammandar
Member Posts: 523
According to KDB Daewoo Securities, NCsoft (together with Nexon) has made an M&A (merger and acquisition) offer to a large overseas game company (most likely US company)
http://www.gamebreaker.tv/mmorpg/ncsoft-merger-time/
Question is, who will NCsoft buy?
Comments
haha, agreed. So far NCwest has enjoyed relative autonomy from NCsoft propper. I think the execs in korea know when to let developers do their work (essentially NCwest is run by Anet).
well, technically japan is on the other side of the Yellow Sea (china sea), EA's share value has been tanking, and Vivendi most likely would prefer to not sell all of its Acti/blizz shares. I think its a toss up, but I somewhat would like to see NCsoft buy out Activision/Blizzard.
Dare I think, less say, that this speaks to GW2's strength and success even before release? Am I stretching it? Probably best left for another thread. Either way, all of this reeks of NCsoft's healthy situation, which makes me glad since they own Anet.
Cheers!
Most likely it will be some other company, but at least for a bit its fun (at least for me) to day-dream about NCsoft buying Activiision/Blizzard. If NCsoft would be able to find a way to fix EA, I wouldn't even mind them buying EA/Bioware.
Evil will always triumph because good is dumb....
Buy EA, and make Ultima Online 2 and I'll be a happy gamer!
On a geographic note, Nintendo America is based in Redmond, WA (basically neighbors with Microsoft), which is just up the road from Bellevue, WA, currently the headquarters of one ArenaNet. So, the combinations there could be interesting.
However, follow my logic on this one:
Guild Wars 2 is made by ArenaNet. The CEO of ArenaNet has stated they want to be the #1 MMO game - which most people take to mean they want to be the WoW killer.
NCSoft owns ArenaNet. If NCSoft acquires Acti/Blizz and shuts down WoW. Then, indirectly, GW2 becomes the "WoW killer"!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Honestly, I really doubt NCSoft would acquire Acti/Blizz. I think it more likely they would come in and save EA's collective asses. However, I honestly don't know.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
When speaking about a company you usually refer to them by their headquartes; Nintendo's headquartes is in Kyoto, Japan.
One of the key clues in the article is that NCsoft has made an offer to a "large" overseas gaming company; which leads most analyst and us posters to believe it is referring to one of the "large" companies as opposed to a smaller company. NCsoft almost makes (publishes more precisely) mmorpgs exclusively, which is one reason why I think they're not going to buy EA/Bioware (which makes more than just SWTOR). Vivendi is looking to sell Activision/Blizzard and so far it has had a hart time finding a buyer. I'm starting to believe more and more that the possibility of NCsoft making an offer to buy Activision/Blizzard is probably the most reasonable theory. My comment about NCsoft primarly being in the mmo business is more directed at Activision/Blizzard's cash cow WOW. NCsoft appears to know more about mmo's than any other games. I do realize that Activision/Blizzard also make other games than mmos and that NCsoft has published games other than mmos. I guess my point is more on the general focus than on the details of every single published/developed game.
What is curious is that no matter how you do the math, there are very few companies (if any) who can purchase the true value of Activision/Blizzard. However, Vivendi is desperate to sell off, so who knows. Most of these kinds of purchases (merges and buy-outs) are not usually paid for up front, they are payed throughout the course of several years. I'm not trying to rationalize the likelyhood of an Activision/Blizzard buy-out, but I do think that people underestimate the willingness and eagerness of Vivendi to sell.
All in all, no one really knows, and I know and realize all of this is just speculation, but it sure is going to be fun to see who is bought, especialy if it ends up being EA/Bioware or Activision/Blizzard.
Edit: A couple months ago Nexon became the largest shareholder of NCsoft stock, pumping 685 million USD into the NCsoft coffers (most likely Kim Taek-Jin's coffers - NCsoft chairman). Having said that, though not even close to make an offer to buy Activision/Blizzard, would it be enough for a downpayment? lol.
Evil will always triumph because good is dumb....
LMAO!!!!!
Oh sh*t!! that would be too much, just too much!! hahaha
I think, for a second or two (not one more), I would actually feel bad for some of the wow/blizz-trolls.
Context: not calling all lovers of wow and blizzard trolls, just those who claim the second coming of games via Titan; yes, those who claimed GW2 is going to be the second coming are also out of their minds!
It will be Zynga ... IMO.
Currently a $2.24 billion market cap; based in San Francisco.
The stock lost 40% of its value on last earnings, dropping from $5 to below $3. This was after the share price had been above $14 in February and March of this year.
The company's officers are being sued into oblivion for making misleading statements and breaches of fiduciary duty (defying the assertion of the defenders of major publishers on this board that suits don't just make ---- up just to keep investors happy). Like the corporate clowns that they are EA has just recently jumped on board with copyright lawsuits.
I'm not exactly sure how these things work, but I'm guessing NCSoft's purchase helps fund the settlements and they get to add a new dimension to their portfolio of online games.
Activision is likely to buy itself
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/18/activision-could-buy-itself-back-from-vivendi
EQ2 fan sites
In my opinion, it will not be Zynga. Zynga may get really cheap, but what's in it for NCSoft? Zynga will have lots of litigation (and probably debt too) and not much assets (no sustainable games, the officers are junk/unethical, etc.). It just looks like a bad deal even at a cheap price. (Will you buy a junk MMO for $5? I hope not 'cause you can't use it!) Besides, it doesn't align with what Nexon/NCSoft does best, which is making/running MMOs. xxxVille is a far cry from MMOs.
Activision Blizzard on the other hand has assets NCSoft can use (WoW and some really good artists + programmers and games that gel well with the Korean market) and not much baggage and its owner wants to sell it. Yes, NCSoft can buy Activision Blizzard... by borrowing money.
If NCSoft can't see this, maybe it should hire me into its management. :P
To be honest it probably will be ea/bioware division only. Ea wants to get rid of the under performing division as its costing them big bucks. Why shut down a division when you can made oodles of cash off the game then pawn the problems off to the next guy.
I don't thing activision is on the list as I don't thin ncsoft has that kind of cash.
So really I think bioware is done for and soon to be auctioned off, and ea will walk away smiling and happy they got rid of a problem game. Actually they might get rid of all their under performing pc games and stick directly with the market they know well and that is console gaming.
Oh well, it will be interesting to see what happens.
I would try to secure my own fate first as well before I become somebody's lackey. LOL
Dosen't look like they are buying anything. 6 million loss last quarter...
Now their majority owner Nexom may be looking to buy something.
They are already Vivendi's lackey. It does raise a good point though, can Blizzard buy itself back? Can they make enough money to buy back their own value? If Blizzard continues to make a profit though, would that not raise their value? Can a company ever buy back its own value? Is it even possible?
It's Funcom !
FC has been struggling for a while, their stock is really cheap. They are already active in the F2P market. They have built and refined their own game engine which is working extremely well in TSW.
AND Funcom have called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders which takes place at the end of this month...
In the IGN article it says:
"Activision Blizzard currently has approximately $3 billion worth of cash available with little to no debt, and 'would likely have to borrow funds or bring private equity or other outside investors into the fold to help finance a transaction,' according to the Journal."
Remember, the news about NCsoft (together with Nexon) wanting to buy a large overseas game company is not to buy them out, but a merger and acquisitions "puchase". It would be interesting if NCsoft and Nexon invested in the self purchase of Blizzard from Vivendi.
It could very well the case that NCsoft is looking to buy just the Activision branch or just the Bioware brand. Just like Blizzard does not have enough money to buy itself NCsoft also does not have the money. In any situation where anyone is going to want to buy Vivendi's shares, they are going to have to take out a loan.
Time will tell.
Amazing thread here... They just got taken over by nexom... They just lost 6 million. Still you guys think they are in the buyers market?
Wake up people.