CD Projekt - "Acquired" by Optimus

Dhruin · October 3, 2009

Polish site Polygamia has two news pieces about the acquisition of CD Projekt by Polish computer hardware company Optimus SA. As it turns out, Optimus is nearly defunct and the principals of CD Projekt will ultimately own half of the bigger Optimus, so this a back-door way to enter the share market and raise capital without going through a more complex public float. You can read the original article here and an update here but this quote from CD Projekt co-founder Michał Kiciński is probably all most of us need to know:

We have tried to find a way of entering the stock market for several months, in order to develop further and to more easily acquire capital for producing games, without being at the mercy of Western publishers.

Thanks Ausir and Gorath.
More information.

Acleacius · October 3, 2009

I hope it works for them, don't recall hearing about Western publishers being a problem for them. In most cases I am against publishers but CDProjekt chases Graphic Whores at the expense of Stability, Gameplay and Working Quests.

It's weird, I don't recall these guys ever taking responsibility even when it was taking them 5, 6, 7 years (don't even remember now) to get out STALKER SoC. Too bad really if they realized there own problems holding them back they could be much more productive and successful.

JDR13 · October 3, 2009

Acleacius said:
It's weird, I don't recall these guys ever taking responsibility even when it was taking them 5, 6, 7 years (don't even remember now) to get out STALKER SoC. Too bad really if they realized there own problems holding them back they could be much more productive and successful.

Wasn't STALKER developed by GSC Gameworld, and published by THQ?

Dhruin · October 3, 2009

Um.....yes.

Krzychu · October 3, 2009

Optimus? They tried to do that with a completely different company not long ago, but didn't sign the deal in the end. Now they're trying with CD Projekt, huh…
Well I hope it will be beneficial for CDP (although my associations with the name "Optimus" aren't the prettiest).

Acleacius · October 3, 2009

JDR13 said:
Wasn't STALKER developed by GSC Gameworld, and published by THQ?

Yes, but do you mean because THQ was a Western publisher? I recall THQ bending over backwards for GSC, at least two, one year delays, maybe more it's been awhile. Am I remembering wrong?

JDR13 · October 3, 2009

Acleacius said:
Yes, but do you mean because THQ was a Western publisher? I recall THQ bending over backwards for GSC, at least two, one year delays, maybe more it's been awhile. Am I remembering wrong?

Ah ok, you were talking about Western publishers in general, I misunderstood.

Alrik Fassbauer · October 3, 2009

I think the last sentence of the quotation is everything one needs to know about the gaming industry as it stands now.

There's sooooo much between the lines ...

tazpn · October 4, 2009

This is baffles me. So CD Projekt is doing this just to get access to a company that is traded on an exchange so they don't need to do it themselves? Investors are going to look at this merger as a good thing to put money into? I guess it would make some sense to me if Optimus is shell with few employees (outsourcing most of the manufacturing to china/taiwan/india). I guess this is why I'm just an engineer. Anyway I wish them well and I hope gog.com survives this if it does not go as planned.

Gorath · October 4, 2009

So CDP gets 50% of the new Optimus and the former owners get 14M Zloty. The new company gets some cash from the old owners for the issued new stock.

If Optimus was indeed nearly out of business, this whole stunt smells of desparation. The price sounds high for an almost empty shell.

CD Projekt - "Acquired" by Optimus

Dhruin

SasqWatch

Acleacius

SasqWatch

JDR13

SasqWatch

Dhruin

SasqWatch

Krzychu

Sentinel

Acleacius

SasqWatch

JDR13

SasqWatch

Alrik Fassbauer

TL;DR

tazpn

Watcher

Gorath

Prime Evil