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My inside information: Funcom being bought out
gamesrfun
Member Posts: 127
Big news for Funcom fans:
Hate me or dislike me, and my various alts (Litigator, etc.):
But, here is my last inside scoop: Funcom is being bought out by EA or Activision.
Questions:
1) If you have this info, why do you not know who is buying Funcom out?
Answer: I was told by my inside informant in Canada that it is 1 of the 2 major game companies. I'm assuming it is EA or Activision. Why he does not know, I cannot tell you.
2) Why should I trust this information, because it is hearsay?
Fair enough, if this person is not telling me the truth, this could be 100% nonsense. But I do know that this is a full-time Quebec Funcom employee.
3) Funcom is Norwegian, they have laws for corporate takeovers. What gives?
Answer: Corporate takeovers in Norway require two levels of compliance: Board of Directors and also they must pass a "smell" test by the Norwegian Government. Fact is, the smell test was set up to protect natural resources in Norway, and was not meant to protect industries such as Funcom. If the BoD approves (unknown at this point) then I expect no issues with the Norwegian Legislature.
4) Does this make Funcom a good investment?
Answer: I'm not exposing myself to that type of question. Personally, I think Funcom is fairly valued, so they can make that choice. Even if I thought differently I would not tell you.
5) When should this happen?
Spring/Summer 2013, with a heavy leaning towards Spring unless something happens to derail the negotation.
Cheers:
Litigator/RexTerra/AlbertaLawyer: aka gamesrfun
Comments
I am hesitant about it. Unless it's a real bargain. Economy is going to go downhill in next 4 years, companies are wary.
But who knows.
Sith Warrior - Story of Hate and Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxKrlwXt7Ao
Imperial Agent - Rise of Cipher Nine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBj3eJWBvU&feature=youtu.be
Imperial Agent - Hunt for the Eagle Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQqjYYU128E
You know looking back on things, even though I'm a huge indy support and have supported funcom in part for being that indy, I can't help to wonder how things would have been different for TSW if Activision, or even EA did own Funcom. I think there would have been better marketing and TSW would have had more time to cook.
Idk maybe that extra backing could have made a difference. Idk.
Waste of EA money if you ask me.
Funcom should stick to Longest journey-saga or remake AO. Anything else they've delved in hasn't really "made it"
EA take over... AKA the kiss of death. Just ask Bioware how that goes err, I mean all those ex bioware employees replaced slowly but surely enmass by insiders just like happened with every other single studio or company they have bought out. That would also impact the game in a bad way as they make people tinker it into a profitable form for them.
Please not EA.
If so, it's been kept quiet. No jump in stock price as would be expected.
I can see ea buying out funcom. After all they produced TSW and host it on their servers. AOC already free to play so they don't have to do anything. The store is already in place in TSW so all you would have to do is stick some artificial road blocks in and take it free to play as wel.
Should be interesting.
Just to clairfy:
Their HQ is in Oslo, Norway. Funcom is a Norwegian company, and Norway is not a member of the EU.
Maybe you should bother reading Funcom's corporate website first next time, as Funcom doesn't have an office in Sweden. ;-)
Blizzard in charge of Funcom MMO?
seem interesting.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Don't think EA is in a position to make a move like this.
Acti-Blizz on the other hand is loaded with cash.
It is hilarious to see some people think 'being on the board' = buyout.
Kotick (Acti-Blizz CEO) is on the board for Coca-Cola. I am pretty sure Coca-Cola isn't buying Acti-Blizz. XD
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Why would EA at this time continue to do takeovers when EA themselfs are for sale ? why would they at this time buy a company that is not very healthy , this would only reduce EA potential sale value , not increase.
http://www.ibtimes.com/electronic-arts-sale-ea-quietly-exploring-private-equity-interest-report-748611
Yeah it is not in EU, but it is in EEA(European Economic Area) which economically is almost as if they were in EU. Norway companies and vice versa have almost unresticted access to their markets, there is totally free movement of capital, goods, people(including workets) and services. Norway is also in Schengen Area which mean no border control / stops.
So while Norway is not in EU, it practically is as far intergrated with EU as it is possible without actually being a member.
------------------------------
On topic:
Who knows. Funcom stock dropped by like 90% and company itself propably need cash to stabilize so it might be cheap to buy Funcom. I actually I am wondering why no Chinese or Korean company does not want to make buyout. Those companies start to agreesively invest on western markets lately.
Funcom are Norwegian not Swedish
Ea are already in the eu, the have UK and Irish divisions.
Why are activision and ea "the big 2"?
What about Sony, valve, zenimax? I reckon they have as much clout, possibly more.
Nope. EA distributed the game (box copies & some digital sales through Origin iirc).
I'm not even sure EA run servers, maybe they do for swtor, but they don't run the daoc and warhammer servers directly.
Funcom host and run their own games. Anarchy Online is currently planned for migration to the same systems as TSW are hosted on, and Age of Conan was already migrated (I think).
Not sure if all of you all played AO back in the days, but it's still active and is not only being migrated tpo their new servers but it is also being migrated to Funcoms newer engine Dreamworld and will be re-released (in beta) with a fresh new look in Q1 2013. I'll then play som AO again - 12 years after it was first launched - that is pretty awesome
I play TOR oh and btw the economy is going down in 4 years, I developed that forsight with my years of playing a star wars game.
lmfao
mmorpg forums ftw
apart from the fact that EA have had european offices for ages now and have several euro companies in it's stable already.
To be honest i see no real point for any of them to buy FunCom unless FunCom is working on something we the public is not aware of yet.
This have been a good conversation
As far as business' go, acquiring FunCom would be a fairly cheap acquisition, it would knock out yet another piece of the competition, and it would strengthen their foothold in the europian market.
While I don't like EA's policy of buying up studios and dissolving them, it would make sense in this case. If anyone is to buy out FunCom atm, it would be EA.
arent any good left so they drop their standards