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THQ's bankruptcy sale details: Auction on January 22nd, Will Allow Piecemeal Purchase

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M

Mugy

Member
Green Scar said:
Pssh, we all know they're gonna buy Darksiders and rebrand it as The Dark Legend of Zelda
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5c7dynu.png
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
THQ Peace Meal Update
- Bids are due 9am January 22nd
- Auction will be held 3pm on January 22nd
- Sale Hearing January 23rd at 9am
- The auction will allow for bidders to bid on only certain assets (titles, studios, etc) in the auction

Other details from the hearing concerned the minimum overbid which was reduced as well as the extension of Clearlake Capital's DIP term loan to January 25th (as an over-advance line).

In the morning hearing, it was announced that Clearlake Capital's bid would remove the $10M 2% note they originally had offered in exchange for extending the auction deadline. One thing to note: It remains to be seen how much secured debt (and for that matter assumed liabilities) will there actually be on the auction date. It was noted in the hearing this morning the company has begun the "slow pay" its bills which would alleviate need for cash but in theory increased assumed liabilities to a purchaser. As has been noted in the hearing, Clearlake can pick and choose which liabilities its assuming, but their counsel did note that it would be a more concrete number (to determine overbids) at the auction.

Currently bonds are trading in the 15-16 context. I had heard from traders on Friday that bonds were difficult to find (the issue is only $100M) but some bonds have traded this morning.

For bondholders, the only recovery (under Clearlake's stalking horse bids) they were going to receive was the $10M promissory note which seems to have been pulled away. If any of the parties involved (so far EA, Warner Brothers have been named in court) bid for all or just some of the titles, there is a chance bond holders could see a recovery here. Exact bid procedures have yet to be filed so I do not have a good assessment on how bids will be evaluated.

For instance, what happens if two studios are purchased for an aggregate consideration more than Clearlake's bid but the remaining studios need to be wound down? That may actually drain resources from the estate for wind down expenses.

For what its worth, when I first saw Clearlake's bid I wanted to be an LP in their fund because they would make a fortune off their purchase price. Given the way cash flows will begin to pick up (and possibly roll in if they are successful, not to mention cash already overseas) at THQI after their two releases in the first half of this year, with which a lot of developmental costs have been already spent, the return to Clearlake would have been impressive.

A few questions remain: Where are the massive swings in potential unsecured liabilities (from the first day affidavit) from Europe arising from? No one has given me a good answer on that. Why hasn't bond holders (or strategics for that matter) stepped up with their own DIP?
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J

Jackano

Member
Instead of scarying me with your Vigil Retro Zelda, Dark Zelda Siders, why not just doing the opposite and having Eiji Aonuma making Darksiders 3? Now I can laught!
 
T

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
Shard said:
I dunno, I see Warner walking away with Saints Row.
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if only the IP then it's pointless, they need to get Volition with it.

I don't mind WB, they are better than EA or Acti or anyone of console manufacturers.

Labadal said:
My bet is they'll buy Darksiders. Still don't think EA will get SR.

Whatever happens, I just hope that most studios don't get fucked.
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I don't see it, WB own DC and if they want a fantasy action rpg they can turn any of their comic into it, getting Darksiders (without Joe Mad on the ship now) is just waste of time and money for them.
 
S

shrapnelmagnet

Member
Infinite Justice said:
yep, smh


while not understanding the business lingo much it sounds like Clearlake (and possibly THQ management) would have made out like bandits if the original sale actually went through.
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From what I've been told, Clearlake and co. did their due diligence by talking with other players in the industry and afterwards made their offer on THQ. Any claims of "conspiracy" or "cheating" made by other parties (creditors, etc.) was not found to be substantial by the judge. This is how Chapter 11 works, as far as I know.

But yes, it's clear that the idea was to pay as little as possible. Which makes sense, I think.
 
S

sflufan

Banned
shrapnelmagnet said:
Any claims of "conspiracy" or "cheating" made by other parties (creditors, etc.) was not found to be substantial by the judge. This is how Chapter 11 works, as far as I know.
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This is completely and totally incorrect.

The judge found that THQ and Clearlake were attempting to engineer a deal that would not be of benefit to the creditors by creating conditions that would make external due diligence very difficult.
 
AHA-Lambda

AHA-Lambda

Member
Nirolak said:
Well, I think THQ funded most of it, but SPS wants to enact the buyback clause, at which point SPS would have spent most of the money and presumably just be seeking a distributor.

That said they also want $2.275 million for defaulted payments, so this might be in limbo a bit longer than I thought if it was just a rights issue.
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I though Viacom funded most of South Park?
 
K

Kimawolf

Member
So, Southpark, being completed would just need a new publisher which wouldn't seem to be too hard. But could the creators get the IP back AND get the game, cutting Obsidian out of the pie completely due to it being in bankruptcy?

And I assume the Metro dev studio is on the phone to Microsoft or EA hoping to get picked up to be published now since I doubt Sony will and Nintendo certainly wouldn't do it now, or do they not own that IP? Either way both those games seem up in the air no?
 
S

sflufan

Banned
Kimawolf said:
So, Southpark, being completed would just need a new publisher which wouldn't seem to be too hard. But could the creators get the IP back AND get the game, cutting Obsidian out of the pie completely due to it being in bankruptcy?
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Obsidian is not in bankruptcy.
 
C

CosmicQueso

Member
MrNyarlathotep said:
As a PC gamer, the choice of seeing some of my favorite franchises end up with EA, Warner Bros, Activision or Ubisoft is pretty depressing.
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Why is Warner depressing? They've dropped gfwl, have added steamworks to games like Lego and scribble and the scribble game had the object editor, Guess I don't get it.
 
J

Jamie OD

Member
Tiktaalik said:
Do we know yet what's the deal with WWE/Yukes? Are the rights up for grabs?
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Take it for what it's worth but over on the Wrestling Observer board, Dave Meltzer simply posted "The deal was already made late last week." Doesn't mention which developr or publisher but it seems WWE already has things sorted on their end,
 
T

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
MrNyarlathotep said:
As a PC gamer, the choice of seeing some of my favorite franchises end up with EA, Warner Bros, Activision or Ubisoft is pretty depressing.
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PC wise, WB and Activision are just way better than EA and Ubi,they release PC versions of their games most of the time unlike the other two and also they don't force a shitty client on your face like EA(Origin) or Ubi(uplay)
 
W

wrowa

Member
farnham said:
No nintendo? Fail
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Why would Nintendo even want any of THQ?

They know fairly well that they don't have the audience (yet) to viably sustain a franchise like Saints Row and a studio like Violition. It would be a sure way to burn through a heap of money. They would be better off money hatting something...

All of THQ's IPs aren't of interest to them. They simply don't need new family-friendly IPs like de Blob or uDraw and stuff like Relic/CoH is a waste of money for everyone solely on the console side of things.

The only thing I can see them kinda interested in is Vigil. But again, it wouldn't make sense for Nintendo to buy them, instead it would make much more sense to approach the talent directly and get them to join Retro (since both studios are based in Austin).
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Jamie OD said:
Take it for what it's worth but over on the Wrestling Observer board, Dave Meltzer simply posted "The deal was already made late last week." Doesn't mention which developr or publisher but it seems WWE already has things sorted on their end,
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Aki? IS IT AKI?
 
M

MrNyarlathotep

Banned
CosmicQueso said:
Why is Warner depressing? They've dropped gfwl, have added steamworks to games like Lego and scribble and the scribble game had the object editor, Guess I don't get it.
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Batman: AC; arbitrary delays everywhere
Lego Batman 2; arbitrary delays outside of the UK
Scribblenauts Unlimited; not out yet in Europe (arbitrary delay until feb 15th)

:/

Totobeni said:
PC wise, WB and Activision are just way better than EA and Ubi,they release PC versions of their games most of the time unlike the other two and also they don't force a shitty client on your face like EA(Origin) or Ubi(uplay)
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Activision probably are the best of the bunch, but then... arbitrary activison tax

:/

TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
On the other hand Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft would be worse.
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I guesssssss......

Although I don't really see much interest in any of them picking up Company of Heroes or Dawn of War

:/

EDIT:
Best case scenario is 2K Games pick up the PC only franchises I guess... at least they're aware the PC exists.

:/
 
S

shrapnelmagnet

Member
sflufan said:
This is completely and totally incorrect.

The judge found that THQ and Clearlake were attempting to engineer a deal that would not be of benefit to the creditors by creating conditions that would make external due diligence very difficult.
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Which is why they slowed things down. What I'm saying is that there were far more reaching allegations about a "conspiracy" and trying to slip one past all the other potential bidders out there by not giving them a chance to look at things. It was a matter of 10-15 days difference, not exactly a huge coup.

The judge, while allowing a piece-meal deal, did not believe the more wild allegations that were being thrown around.

As I said, I think it's clear that Clearlake would've preferred to just take it quickly at their offering price, but there's no fraudulent behaviour going on.
 
ape2man

ape2man

Member
Linkified said:
Things THQ can't sell:
  • South Park - distribution deal
  • WWE - self explanatory
  • Spongebob - self explanatory
  • Warhammer - self explanatory
  • Metro - publishing deal

Warner Bros. Interactive will buy:


Ubisoft will buy:


Homefront and De blob will end up at either Warner or Ubi can't think where they would go and they could go either way...

And the biggest thing is studio in Montreal with AC creator heading it up I wonder where that now goes...
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why is everyone forgetting homeworld
 
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