{"id":14613,"date":"2024-03-15T14:38:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T14:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1404850"},"modified":"2024-03-15T14:38:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T14:38:18","slug":"riddled-with-debt-swedens-embracer-sells-star-wars-game-maker-for-500m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=14613","title":{"rendered":"Riddled with debt, Sweden\u2019s Embracer sells Star Wars game maker for $500M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swedish gaming company Embracer Group has sold a big chunk of one of its biggest subsidiaries, US-headquartered Saber Interactive, in a deal totalling $500mn. <\/span><\/p>\n

The buyer is <\/span>Beacon Interactive, a holding company recently formed by none other than Saber\u2019s own co-founder Matthew Karch<\/span>. In a <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> shared with Bloomberg, Karch said he was buying back the rights to his company and many of its studios because \u201cthey represent the best of what Saber is and can be.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Saber Interactive is currently overseeing the development of 38 games, including Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, <\/span>John Carpenter\u2019s Toxic Commando, and Jurassic Park: Survival. <\/span>It is also working on a remake of the classic sci-fi game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, Embracer purchased Saber Interactive for <\/span>$525mn, as part of a spending spree that saw it acquire a number of major gaming studios \u2014 and a whole lot of debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Forced into some major restructuring, by November last year Embracer had laid off<\/a> 904 employees, roughly 5% of its workforce, and canceled at least fifteen projects. As such, the company cut its debt from $2bn to $1.5bn. Selling Saber will no doubt push Embracer closer to the green, but it is also losing some major titles in the process. <\/span><\/p>\n

Along with the games it is currently working on, Beacon is <\/span>taking 3000 workers from Saber while Embracer is retaining 800 (it has 14,140 workers overall).<\/span> Beacon will also take s<\/span>ome proprietary engine technology and game tools along with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This may be the beginning of a widespread exodus at Embracer, which has also <\/span>reportedly<\/span><\/a> received interest for another one of its subsidiaries Gearbox, best known for the Borderlands game. The studio could be worth $1.3bn. <\/span><\/p>\n

For many gamers, the <\/span>quicker their favourite titles leave Embracer the better. \u201cGreat news,\u201d wrote one <\/span>Reddit<\/span><\/a> user upon the news that 4A, the maker of the Metro first-person shooter franchise, was jumping ship. <\/span>\u201cIt would be a dark day in gaming if they were closed down because of the shit show Embracer has become.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully the remaining titles get out of that [Embracer] clusterfuck soon,\u201d said another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lars Wingefors, co-founder and CEO of Embracer, is just happy to get some cash on the account.<\/span> \u201cCash flow is immediately improved, and we remain committed to reducing net debt,\u201d he said, adding that the transaction<\/span> puts \u201cboth companies in a stronger position to thrive going forward.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the deal, Embracer will also discontinue all operations in Russia, due to the fact that it now longer owns the studios that have offices there. <\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swedish gaming company Embracer Group has sold a big chunk of one of its biggest subsidiaries, US-headquartered Saber Interactive, in a deal totalling $500mn.  The buyer is Beacon Interactive, a holding company…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}