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CD Projekt may be preparing to defend against a hostile takeover

Which of these companies is presumably trying to buy CD Projekt?


Results are only viewable after voting.

boskee

Member
Wait, my fault. Bloomberg has tracked the Stuttgart stock exchange. Based on the Onvista there was indeed a transaction of around 2% in early September and another one end of the same month of around 1,2%. Still nothing to worry about.

Information is only disclosed if you previously (or after the sale) held over 5% of the stock. Both shareholders in this case had over 5% so it was reported. There may very well be someone who already has 4% of the shares and is looking for more.
 
When was the last time EA bought a studio?

In terms of a large studio a while. On one hand they make the most sense out of the big 4 to purchase CDPR as their overall game portfolio seems to jive the best with the types of games CDPR is making.

But like others have mentioned there are a lot of reasons why it isn't them. They don't normally do it aggressively and as far as I know don't own any share on CDPR currently.

It's more than likely some large investment company. Which could potentially be worst case scenario. People saying they would be mad at it being EA, an investment firm could be far worse
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
This would be the worst thing. Particularly because of the impact it could have on GOG.


Can't the industry just leave a company trying to actually do a good job alone?
 

Schlorgan

Member
In terms of a large studio a while. On one hand they make the most sense out of the big 4 to purchase CDPR as their overall game portfolio seems to jive the best with the types of games CDPR is making.

But like others have mentioned there are a lot of reasons why it isn't them. They don't normally do it aggressively and as far as I know don't own any share on CDPR currently.

It's more than likely some large investment company. Which could potentially be worst case scenario. People saying they would be mad at it being EA, an investment firm could be far worse

This. It's not EA.
 

boskee

Member
They probably needed the cash to make Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk

They went public shortly after The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf failed as they were in deep financial trouble. They took over a nearly-defunct Polish company Optimus (which was legendary in the Polish computer market btw) by reverse-takeover.
 
If it's EA, CD Projekt is done making quality games.

This so much. Never forget:

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M.D

Member
EA doesn't seem like they're interested in making any acquisitions right now. Also, acquisition via hostile takeover isn't their thing.

Additionally, you'd think if they were prepping for a hostile takeover they would've mentioned it in their quarterly report.

Yeah, EA isn't actually a likely option.

So you think this is not one of the big publishers but likely someone like Tencent or Vivendi? That would seem super weird for them to buy a very specific game developer that usually makes one gigantic game every few years that requires a large budget
 

im_dany

Member
EA hasn't even been that bad in those last few years lol

Origin has improved, they cut Battle log (at least on consoles), Access is fantastic value, they made a Mirrors Edge sequel (which YOU didn't buy, probably killing the franchise, but I can already hear most of you in a few years "why isn't EA making more??"), they're giving Bioware plenty of time for Mass Effect 4.

Activision is much worse.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Wait, I thought CDPR were a private company, so can they go up for sale?

And as I said with Ubi, frankly if management are against such a move I don't think they should be able to do such a thing :/

Edit: a they're a public company, don't know why I thought they were private :/
 

Schlorgan

Member
So you think this is not one of the big publishers but likely someone like Tencent or Vivendi? That would seem super weird for them to buy a very specific game developer that usually makes one gigantic game every few years that requires a large budget

I think an investment firm is far more likely; one that already owns shares in the company.
 

wildfire

Banned
Let's be honest, any hostile takeover of Ubisoft is going to result in an insignificant change to consumers. A hostile change of CD Projekt could have huge ramifications.

Ubisoft is the publisher with the largest in house head count by far. Maybe some fat can be trimmed but I will bet against you and say their quality will definitely take a hit.
 

Compsiox

Banned
I wish it were a billionaire who wants to make the biggest and baddest games ever conceived without being worried about making a profit.
 

Ralemont

not me
I think the argument was look at the quality of those games Bioware has made recently, the different demographics they are targeting than pre-EA acquisition, and the massive talent bleed that occurred. It's difficult to make an argument that EA's acquisition has been good for Bioware.

It's even more difficult to make the argument that it hasn't. Leaving aside for a moment that BioWare nearly went the way of Troika/Black Isle before EA got them due to their own mismanagement of project budget, their games have been well-reviewed, sell well enough for EA to continue letting them develop 3 separate IPs, and several of them have garnered numerous GOTY awards. An argument that EA has been bad for BioWare is so predicated on personal preference as to not be particularly useful.
 

Kill3r7

Member
This would be the worst thing. Particularly because of the impact it could have on GOG.


Can't the industry just leave a company trying to actually do a good job alone?

Is there an opportunity to turn a quick profit? If the answer is yes then the bigger fish will inevitably swallow up the smaller one. It's the way capitalism has worked for a long time. If you want to prevent this from happening then don't go public or make sure you have a controlling stake in the company.
 
I hope this is all preemptive measures. With the huge success of Witcher 3, & GOG and their plans for the future this may be actions taken to ensure the safety of the company. Seeing what happened with Ubisoft and Vivendi I hope they are doing this now to prevent a possible hostile takeover in the future.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Is there an opportunity to turn a quick profit? If the answer is yes then the bigger fish will inevitably swallow up the smaller one. It's the way capitalism has worked for a long time. If you want to prevent this from happening then don't go public or make sure you have a controlling stake in the company.

I mean, I know how business works.
 

Schlorgan

Member
If WB owned some share in CDPR I would actually be leaning on this as a possibility as they are trying to grow and already published Witcher 3 in NA and I'm sure made some good cash on that deal.

Of the big western game publishers, WB I think is most likely.
 

boskee

Member
If WB owned some share in CDPR I would actually be leaning on this as a possibility as they are trying to grow and already published Witcher 3 in NA and I'm sure made some good cash on that deal.

They only distributed it. CD Projekt is self-publishing everything starting with The Witcher 3 and going forward. They signed distribution deals for retail copies. That's all.
 
Doesn't ZeniMax like some hostility in takeovers they do?

Not via the open market. And not on companies in good shape.

Their targets are studios with decent talent who've been reduced to the edge of bankruptcy by being fucked with left and right by the rest of the industry to the point that being bought by Bethesda is probably one of the better scenarios for them.

Arkane had a string of projects that were cancelled in order to work on another project - Which was then cancelled to work on another project - Which was then cancelled to work on another project - Which was then cancelled to work on another project - and so on, starting with the ill-fated "The Crossing" and going through a billion and one other things with EA, Ubi, and Activision, all of which ended up getting cancelled so they could work on something else. The net result of being bought by Bethesda was that they actually released something instead of deleting the source code for once.

Id software was absolutely FUCKED by Activision and a bad publishing relationship with them. Under Activision:

1. Id Tech went from THE FPS engine to losing literally all of its market share to Unreal and mods of Id Tech (Source, IW Engine) that didn't have to pay royalties back to Id.

2. The value of Doom was tanked by Doom 3 and the Doom Movie

3. Quake was ran into the ground with Quake 4 and Quake Wars.

4. Wolfenstein was turned into a CoD spinoff

5. Id was relegated solely to developing Id Tech instead of games - Which by this point was a bloated mess of technological gimmicks pushed by a past his prime Carmack that didn't age well or weren't good to begin with, all of which made the engine genuinely worse and failed to sell the engine.

6. Activision was going to have DOOM 4 be a CoD clone

To say the least, Id has come a long way since being bought by Bethesda.

Human Head was the exception to my knowledge, and in their case, don't hate the player, hate the game - Because nothing Bethesda tried there was unique.
 
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