THQ Broken Up Post Bankruptcy

JAN. 23, 2013 • A month after THQ entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring, an asset auction was held and no potential buyer came forward with a bid higher than the sum of individual bids for the publisher’s separate assets. As a result, THQ management has recommended to the bankruptcy court the separate sale of assets, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath in Wilmington, Delaware promptly approved the sales. The Bloomberg news service reported .....

THQ Enters Chapter 11

DEC. 19, 2012 • With $248.1 million in debt and $204.8 million in assets, THQ Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the district of Wilmington, Del.  Only THQ’s U.S. units are covered in the voluntary filing, which seeks to facilitate sale .....

OpenFeint Servers to Close

NOV. 19, 2012 • On Nov. 16, smartphone developers started receiving notices from GREE that the latter was terminating servers of the cross-platform mobile social network OpenFeint on Dec. 14. GREE acquired OpenFeint in 2011 for $104 million. Previous to this announcement GREE had told.....

Disney Acquires LucasFilm

OCT. 31, 2012 • The Walt Disney Company is purchasing LucasFilm Ltd., for $4.05 billion. The latter is wholly owned by chairman George Lucas, who will receive roughly $2 billion in cash, and the remainder in 40 million shares of Disney stock. Disney is acquring Lucas’ entire entertainment holdings, including the LucasArts video game division, and the Industrial Light & Magic special effects business. The sale will make Lucas the second-largest sharehol.....

Zynga Cuts Back

OCT. 24, 2012 • Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus distributed an internal memo throughout the company announcing strategic cuts ahead of reporting third-quarter financial results. The measures undertaken include sunsetting 13 older games that were significantly reducin.....

Nexon Acquires gloops

OCT. 1, 2012 • All outstanding shares of Japanese mobile developer gloops, Inc. were acquired by Nexon Co., Ltd. for ¥36.5 billion ($468 million) in cash. The developer is one of the major content providers for DeNA’s Mobage platform with titles such as Japan Pro Baseball Card Battle, Warriors of Odin and Three Kingdoms Guild Battle. The existing relationship between gloops and DeNA is bringing five titles to North America and Europe in 2012 through its Mobag.....

Microsoft TV Studio Launched

SEPT. 18, 2012 • To date, Microsoft Entertainment has sourced most of its non-game content for Xbox Live from broadcast media sources. That’s changing though as the company has announced the launch of its own Microsoft TV production studio in Los Angeles. Tapped to lead the new facility is Nancy Tellem, who was president of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group until 2009 where she oversaw program development, production, business affairs and oper.....

OnLive’s Radical Restructuring

AUG. 20, 2012 • Cloud gaming service OnLive Inc. invoked a little known California process similar to bankruptcy called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) on the 17th.  ABC is used by companies to sell their assets more swiftly than in a typical bankruptcy in order to pay creditors more promptly. In OnLive’s case, all assets were sold for an undisclosed amount to Gary Lauder who runs technology investment fund Lauder Partners. In the process al.....