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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Earlier today, megacorp Embracer announced they were selling Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take-Two. During an investor call about the divestment, CEO Lars Wingefors confirmed that this brought an end to the restructuring process Embracer announced last year. He was also asked whether this meant Embracer had plans to start acquiring other studios again.

Wingefors said it was "way too early" to restart "the M&A engines."

"We are ending the restructuring programme now, end of March, and the Gearbox restructuring process has been part of that programme. Now we are getting approached, I would say not quite daily, but on a weekly basis, by companies that would like to acquire certain assets within the group. And I’ve been very clear that they’re not for sale, because they’re a very important part for the group and for the shareholders of the group going forward," said Wingefors.

The companies that Embracer have chosen to sell had "negative cashflow", he said, and divesting from those businesses would make the Embracer that remains more "cashflow generative."

This doesn't mean that it's time to resume the group's previous strategy of hoovering up other companies, however.

"Looking to do more [mergers and acquisitions] deals – I think it’s way too early to start talking about restarting the M&A engines again," said Wingefors. "Now we are in the late phases of the consideration into the future of the group, and that’s our highest focus and priority – how we set up ourselves and structure ourselves, and utilise our assets we have within the group, and have them work together, and how we leverage them better working together, utilising different functions, I think that’s our focus right now, to increase profitability and cashflow generation, by simply making better products and games."

As of early 2023, Embracer owned 138 studios, including Gearbox, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, Volition, Piranha Bytes, Ghost Ship Games, 3D Realms, 4A Games, Flying Wild Hog, Saber Interactive, Perfect World, Tuxedo Labs, Coffee Stain, Dambuster Studios, New World Interactive, Warhorse Studio and more. Most had been acquired in the past five years.

During the last twelve months, developer and publishing group Saber Interactive were split into a separate company, taking 3D Realms and 4A Studios with them; TimeSplitters developer Free Radical were closed; Saints Row developer Volition were closed; and 8% of Embracer's employees were laid off.

Embracer say their restructure is over, but it's "too early" to start acquiring studios again

Embracer Group say that their restructure is complete after selling Gearbox, but they're not yet ready to start acquiring (or destroying) new studios.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

 

[Topher]

 

[FeralEcho]

 

[Hudo]

Fuck off, Embracer. You retards bet your whole company on a verbal promise of a deal., which then fell through. That the CEO and CFO retained their positions is crazy.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The companies that Embracer have chosen to sell had "negative cashflow", he said, and divesting from those businesses would make the Embracer that remains more "cashflow generative."

This man really has talent at being a petty, incompetent fuck.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Fuck them, I took cancelling Deus Ex personally.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

What a piece of shit.

 

[Dazraell]

Embracer's execs has to be total morons to think any company will agree for acquisitions after everything they pulled in recent year

 

[Robb]

[Embracer] Looking to do more [mergers and acquisitions] deals

 

[lh032]

 

[Spyxos]

In 1-2 years they will be ready again...

 

[Moses85]

MF

Selling Studios, fireing employees …

 

[drganon]

Embracer isn't going to exist at all for much longer at the rate they're going.

 

[SJRB]

Get this fucking guy off stage.

 

[RickSanchez]

Too Early ? Fuckers should not be let near another studio again. Fucking ban them entirely from interacting with any more entities in the gaming space.

Deus Ex is (was?) one of my all-time favourite gaming series and they just scrubbed it.

 

[PanzerCute]

Fuck off, Embracer. You retards bet your whole company on a verbal promise of a deal., which then fell through. That the CEO and CFO retained their positions is crazy.

One of the worst corporate story of sheer incompetence. I have no idea how management was not entirely replaced after such a shit show.

 

[SantaC]

Deus Ex is (was?) one of my all-time favourite gaming series and they just scrubbed it.

It would been shit anyway

Only good studio embracer has is experiment 101

 

[StueyDuck]

Maybe they simply just don't understand what a video game is...

They think studios are actually video games themselves

 

[Red5]

Deus Ex died because of this, dipshit. At least Homeworld is safe. And I don't think Gearbox had negative cashflow.

 

[Reaseru]

"Too early to start acquiring studios again." - Are they serious?! They just closed studios and fired a bunch of people.

This group is involved in a money laundering scheme, for sure...

 

[winjer]

They didn't learn their lesson.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Now might be a good time to buy, It's less than 8 bucks currently, Maybe they can grow that back up to 10 or 11.
Has anyone made any money off this group?

 

[Hudo]

Deus Ex died because of this

Wait...has this been confirmed?

 

[Skifi28]

 

[ComputerBlue]

That sucks, I was hoping they would sell off Eidos and Deus Ex, fuck Embracer.

 

[Red5]

Wait...has this been confirmed?

Embracer Group Cancels ‘Deus Ex’ Video Game

The Swedish gaming company Embracer Group AB is canceling a video game in the beloved Deus Ex series after two years of development and will lay off a number of employees as part of an ongoing initiative to cut costs, according to people familiar with the moves.

www.bloomberg.com

Yeah they cancelled a Deus Ex game two years into development

 

[LordCBH]

Fuck Embracer.

 

[Hudo]

Embracer Group Cancels ‘Deus Ex’ Video Game

The Swedish gaming company Embracer Group AB is canceling a video game in the beloved Deus Ex series after two years of development and will lay off a number of employees as part of an ongoing initiative to cut costs, according to people familiar with the moves.

www.bloomberg.com

Yeah they cancelled a Deus Ex game two years into development

FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

Man, fuck everything.