Not sure who on here might have the financial means to make serious offers, but figured I'd throw it out there for interested parties.
Warner offered $33 million for most of Midway. This isn't like Acclaim where IP rights to specific properties could be had for thousands of dollars. They are also not at the point where they are selling off gear or other physical assets, this is basically an attempt to keep the company going in some form to recoup some of what the investors have put into it in the past year.
OK people, I'm going to start the bidding at one dollar. Do I hear one dollar... ooonnnneeee dollar... one dibbitydollar. ONE dibbitygibbitydollaronedibbitydollar. Anyone out there, do I hear seventy-five cents. Seventyfivityfive. Seve-- ahh, screw this.
Warner only wants two of the studios and Mortal Kombat as far as I understand it. Midway hopes to sell the rest to other companies, or at least enough, as Bojay said, to keep what ever is left going. However, I don't believe they'll be able to keep it going. From what I have read, there has been minimal interest in most of their studios (unfortunately for the people who work there). They will be selling of most of their best know IPs (if not all of them) which should go for more than Akklaim's, but what will they be left with if they survive the bankruptcy? Most of their staff will be gone, and most or all of their IPs, they'll have nothing to put down as collateral for new loans to fund the company's next game, and what game publisher is going to want to sink money into them knowing what just happend and what is really left. My company went bankrupt and liquidated last year as well, and they kept saying things like "we've got a buyer lined up for the company, so don't worry" or "we're going to sell parts of the company as going concerns to other people" when that wasn't the reality. It's corporate BS so their employees don't start looting the place.
You mean ripping off their shareholders and them selling the company for 100K behind people's backs? It's worse. hundreds of millions stolen from investors with lies.
I usually avoid going into the whole "peoples/shareholders" argument thing and stick to technicalities, mainly because any of us could have preferred to do away with the money if presented with a chance. I was mostly describing the manner in which the whole break-down is handled from a liquidation stand-point.
Ha! Just keeping a weather eye on what might happen. It would be nice to see someone snap it all up and keep those developers fully employed, but I suspect that if anything it could be broken up and sold off in pieces, which may result in some material hitting the auctions - would like to obtain another PS2 Tool.
