Splash Damage Purchased By Chinese Chicken Meat Supplier

Splash Damage Purchased By Chinese Chicken Meat Supplier

20
Dom Peppiatt

Developer Splash Damage - famous for Brink, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and more recently helping out with the Gears of War 4 multiplayer - has been purchased by Leyou Industries: a chicken meat supply company to China's Fujian province.

In a press release issued by the Hong Kong exchange, the deal is detailed: it's titled 'Major Transaction in Relation to the Acquisition of Video Games Companies' and explains the ins-and-outs of the deal. The statement clarifies that Splash Damage has been purchased by Leyou, along with Fireteam and Warchest:

"Splash Damage, together with its subsidiary, is principally engaged in the development of computer games for different hardware platforms, including consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. Fireteam is principally engaged in the provision of online services and back-end support of computer games. Warchest is principally engaged in owning, publishing and operating competitive multiplayer games with high production values for all leading platforms."

The statement goes into a lot of detail about the financial repercussions of the deal, and finally details why Leyou is entering the British gaming market with the purchase. It seems the poultry business has been rough the last few years, and Leyou is looking to exapand into other areas - gaming and tech being the first such area of expansion, after another deal was struck up in July 2015 (bold for emphasis):

"According to the annual report for the year ended 31 December 2015 (the “2015 Annual Report”), the Group continues to face an arduous task in respect of the Poultry Business, where, despite efforts to improve raw materials procurement, feed production, breeder and broiler breeding, broiler slaughtering and process, quality and safety management and sales mix rationalisation and channel expansion, the management of the Group still has limited control of the business results and profitability under the harsh operational environment in the PRC.

The 2015 Annual Report also stated that the global market for video games industry continued to experience healthy growth despite a slowing world economy. The Group entered into the Video Gaming Business in July 2015 upon the completion of the acquisition of 58% equity interests in Digital Extremes, which is a leading Canada-based video game developer. In May 2016, the Group completed the acquisition of a further 39% equity interests in Digital Extremes. The entrance into the Video Gaming Business enabled the Group (i) to diversify its business and mitigate the volatile and cyclical nature of the Poultry Business; and (ii) to enhance its profitability.

For the year ended 31 December 2015, despite approximately 80% of the revenue of the Group was generated from the Poultry Business, approximately 70% of the gross profit of the Group was generated from the Video Gaming Business. With reference to the 2015 Annual Report, the Group will focus on building a diversified portfolio of profitable video gaming studios with strong IPs and franchises, innovative business models and world class production capacity in more developed markets that have proved their success in developing high-end video games.

The Targets are in line with the aforementioned attributes. Hence, the Group has chosen the Targets for its second major acquisition in the Video Gaming Business."

We'll keep an eye on this story and bring you more information as it comes to light.

[via AllGamesDelta]

Comments
20
  • I wonder I they payed a poultry amount.
  • *If not I. Tried to make a pun and I failed. Point and laugh if you wish.
  • Hopefully this doesn't cock up in the future
  • Perhaps they were egged on to buy Spash Damage?
  • Surely this has to be a york?
  • Damn man, Enemy Territory was awesome. Now it's all chickens?
  • These puns are eggscellent.
  • nugget to hand it them
  • Why @#7 getting thumbs down? Cant you all take a yolk ?
  • So if you preorder any splash damage games do you get a chicken as the bonus?
  • the giant chicken from gears 3 will make a cameo.
  • Hope this won't lead to some fowl play
  • I hope their games have coop. I mean co-op. ;)
  • @9 It's Pants Party. People will downvote him solely based on that
  • This cracks me up
  • This news is clucking crazy, I am now a gibbeting wreck.
  • Why vote Pants down? At least he didn't make a clucking mess of his pun at first attempt like I did.
  • @17. Yeah, i messed mine up too lol. *Giblets. Fml.
  • Honestly, this isn't completely crazy. There was an issue of Game Informer that had an article about the origins of some big name game developers. I honestly can't remember which one, but one of them started out as a sewage control company. But I hope they are being smart about this and not just putting their eggs in one basket....sorry I had to.
  • I gotta say, I didn't see this coming. Maybe they were suffering from an empty nest?
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