Also, this is Embracer group Remember them? Buying everyone mid tier in games for really bizarre reasons, no rhyme or reason, everyone going "well this won't go well"? Surprise! - ThreadSky

glassbottommeg.bsky.social • 14 days ago

Also, this is Embracer group

Remember them? Buying everyone mid tier in games for really bizarre reasons, no rhyme or reason, everyone going "well this won't go well"?

Surprise!

Reposted from Ken Burnside

This is private equity about to sink the largest publisher (and second largest distributor) in the tabletop gaming industry.

Comments

thekarpuk.bsky.social•13 days ago

Is there a good term for when private equity dumps their debt into a company and kicks it out? It feels like that's what a pump and dump should be, but that term is already taken.

glassbottommeg.bsky.social•13 days ago

Right? I spent part of the morning trying to figure that out. I don't think it has a term, but it's very much one of the new standard strategies.

heartlessgamer.com•8 days ago

Not sexy but this is technically called "dividend recapitalization" or "dividend recap". Which if you really shorten than up they are just "capping" the company.

elbi.bsky.social•13 days ago

Don't get me wrong, embracer group heads should burn at the stake. But his brainrotted reason for once makes *some* sense? They got a ton of debt, are splitting, and debt stays with the actually profitable child - to pay off. If they assigned it to another, that would be immediate studio closure?

jzwesolowski.bsky.social•14 days ago

At this point I feel we should all stop saying "Embracer this, Embracer that", and start using the names of the morons who personally oversaw this mess as Embracer board members / main stakeholders.

remblanc.com•13 days ago

they leaned on the vague prospect of a saudi deal so hard

kanaratron.bsky.social•13 days ago

FFS.

coil.bsky.social•13 days ago

This is some mitigating detail, at least.

https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-intends-to-contribute-eur-400m-to-asmodee-and-presents-asmodees-financial-targets-dividend-policy-and-net-financial-debt/

ariaforfun.bsky.social•14 days ago

The article’s wording of this isn’t great, but it seems to state that Asmodee’s lifetime revenue up to this point is $1.35b. Given the lifespan of the company, that bodes pretty poorly for their ability to handle this debt.

rtm223.me•13 days ago

That's annual revenues. When Embracer announced that Asmodee was taking on the debt (10 months ago when the split was announced) Asmodee was making ~$180MM USD in annual profit. So while it's not great that they are shouldering all that debt, they probably can handle it

chetsucks.com•13 days ago

And every video game person covering this called asmodee the successful part so this was fine.. or something.

And embracer games trudges on…

brokentoys.social•13 days ago

It's a ponzi scheme. Quite literally.

glassbottommeg.bsky.social•13 days ago

Well, really it's more of a takeover and looting situation, except first they rolled a bunch of smaller companies into one larger company big enough to then execute the loot-and-scoot on.

brokentoys.social•13 days ago

My impression was they were acquiring companies, dumping debt on them, shutting them down, and moving on to others to repeat the process.

Ponzi scheme.

remblanc.com•13 days ago

i don't think they were intending to dump debt, rather they were doing reckless spending/acquisitions when they could get away with borrowing a lot and they expected to be bailed out by something of the failed saudi deal level.

so it's more a case of malicious incompetence over anything else

chetsucks.com•13 days ago

Yeah it was buying everyone drinks at the bar when you left your wallet at home. How is this supposed to work out? Who knows but right now the drinks are free and the problem is in the future.

glassbottommeg.bsky.social•13 days ago

I think the big thing we can all agree on is: this is bad, it was never gonna be good, and it's absurd anyone ever thought otherwise, heh

chetsucks.com•13 days ago

On the game side they just let people mostly alone - for both good and bad until the implosion and then they started shuttering places.

This was different?

getter7seven.bsky.social•14 days ago

Holy SHIT :/

arachnocommunist.bsky.social•14 days ago

the worst part is a lot of people were blinded by a mix of famous studio names, nostalgia for dead IP, and generalized anger at industry players to see how obvious it was that even buying these studios at firesale prices was embracer being ripped off

gamedhd.bsky.social•13 days ago

I just... I truly don't even know where to begin with this. The scam continues, I guess.

jadedsketch.bsky.social•13 days ago

Fuck!! Now they’re coming for my board games?? (Or already did I guess). I hate thiiiiis

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