Breaking News: Midway sold to private investor for $100,000

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,605
3
81
http://www.edge-online.com/news/midway-sold-00012-share

Wow... Just wow...

Well, it's just an 87% stake in the company. Seriously, this is a steal. He could turn around and sell the rights to the MK franchise to another company and make millions, not to mention the numerous other franchises that belong to the Midway brand.

Don't know anything about this Mark Thomas guy, but maybe he'll try to bring the comapny back down to it's roots and get it excited about making good games again.
 
BoberFett

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
Hell, if I'd known they were selling I'd have picked it up for that price. Never saw it listed under Hot Deals though. :(
 
vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Please, please, please let there be a NBA Jam 2009.

Boomshakalaka!
Click to expand...

Steve Nash + Amare Stoudamire?

:shocked:

That would be fun. :D
 
Maximilian

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
From wikipedia:

"Sumner Redstone, the head of Viacom/CBS Corporation, is a large investor in the company; he owned directly and through his companies 87% of Midway at the end of 2007.[3] In December 2008 he sold all his stock to "Mark Thomas", a private investor about who little is currently known, for $100,000 plus ~$70m of debt.[4]"

I dont know much about buisness unfortunately but dosent he inherit the debt that midway is in? Its financial numbers on wiki looks terrible.
 
S

Slick5150

Diamond Member
Nov 10, 2001
8,760
3
81
Why they ever killed off the NBA Jam franchise is beyond me. I don't even like Basketball and loved playing that game. There was briefly a hockey version of it as well that was really fun... I think it was called NHL Open Ice ??
 
E

erwos

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2005
4,778
0
76
Spending $30.1m to get rid of $70m of debt seems like a pretty damn good deal to me.

But, honestly, new ownership is probably not enough to turn them around. (/me is an MBA student.)
 
C

ChaoZ

Diamond Member
Apr 5, 2000
8,906
1
0
Originally posted by: Maximilian
From wikipedia:

"Sumner Redstone, the head of Viacom/CBS Corporation, is a large investor in the company; he owned directly and through his companies 87% of Midway at the end of 2007.[3] In December 2008 he sold all his stock to "Mark Thomas", a private investor about who little is currently known, for $100,000 plus ~$70m of debt.[4]"

I dont know much about buisness unfortunately but dosent he inherit the debt that midway is in? Its financial numbers on wiki looks terrible.
Click to expand...

Not really. If the company can't pay its debt, creditors won't go after him for the money. If he can turn the company around it's a good investment. If not, he's only out $100k.
 
IHateMyJob2004

IHateMyJob2004

Lifer
Sep 29, 2004
18,656
67
91
Umm, all these comments and no one has taken a look at the balance sheets? Do they have debt or pending lawsuits? Does Midway own the MK intellectual property (probably)?

The thing is, what is the company actually worth?
 
R

RagingBITCH

Lifer
Sep 27, 2003
17,618
2
76
Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
Umm, all these comments and no one has taken a look at the balance sheets? Do they have debt or pending lawsuits? Does Midway own the MK intellectual property (probably)?

The thing is, what is the company actually worth?
Click to expand...

Their debt is clearly stated already in the thread. :p
 
M

mxyzptlk

Golden Member
Apr 18, 2008
1,888
0
0
is NBA Street not the spiritual successor to NBA Jam? In addition to super fantastic dunks, it also had a pretty snazzy combo-dribble system that I found pretty impressive to watch.
 
AstroManLuca

AstroManLuca

Lifer
Jun 24, 2004
15,628
5
81
Originally posted by: mxyzptlk
is NBA Street not the spiritual successor to NBA Jam? In addition to super fantastic dunks, it also had a pretty snazzy combo-dribble system that I found pretty impressive to watch.
Click to expand...

Sort of. Midway has its own basketball series called NBA Ballers that is basically the same thing... arcade-style street ball. Most recent installment is NBA Ballers: Chosen One and it's out for 360 and PS3.

All of Midway's sports games are arcade-style games, not sims like what EA and 2K go for. Their football game is Blitz: The League (formerly NFL Blitz), which is totally silly.
 
TallBill

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,017
62
91
My friend works there, wonder what the deal is. His name was in the credits for MKvsDC and he got a free copy lol :)
 
M

Matt2

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2001
4,762
0
0
Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
Umm, all these comments and no one has taken a look at the balance sheets? Do they have debt or pending lawsuits? Does Midway own the MK intellectual property (probably)?

The thing is, what is the company actually worth?
Click to expand...

Being an accounting major, I couldnt resist.

Basically, the balance sheet for Midway looks ok. Current assets are greater than current liabilities and total assets are greater than total liabilities.

Super.

Then you look at the retained earnings balance, -418.2m. Wow, not so super.

To me, the balance sheet is misleading because it shows an operational company. The real picture is painted in the income statment and the statement of cash flows. The income statment shows a whopping 100m LOSS for 2007 net income. The statement of cashflows shows a 50m reduction in cash in 2007.

So basically, Midway is in the crapper. They lost nearly 1/4 the value of their total assets in one year, they're bleeding cash like a severed artery, and they've been pumping additional stockholder cash into the company to the point where the stock is absolutely worthless.

Who in here still thinks it was a steal? Still want to buy four?

;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom