THQ Nordic acquires Koch Media and Deep Silver

by Mark Tyson on 14 February 2018, 15:31

Tags: THQ (NASDAQ:THQI), Koch Media, Deep Silver

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Austria-based THQ Nordic will pay €121 million (approx £108 million or $149 million) to acquire Koch Media, the parent company of Dead Island, Saints Row, and Metro series publisher Deep Silver. THQ Nordic's purchase will bring in house all of Koch Media's studios, intellectual properties, and licenses. Those properties even include 1,500 films released in German and Italian markets.

According to the company press release this is a multi-stage deal for 100 per cent of Koch Media's assets. Today €66 million in cash has been paid, there will be a payment of €9.5 million in debentures paid on 15th June, and €16 million in cash will be paid on 14th August. Yes, that adds up to €91.5 million (rather than €121 million), as this is said to represent the equity value of Koch Media, rather than cash value.

THQ Nordic is the company behind the Darksiders and de Blob re-releases. Thanks to the newly announced acquisition it will take control of Volition (Saints Row), Dambuster (Homefront) and Dead Island. Furthermore, it will pick up Deep Silver's exclusive rights to the Metro games, which are developed by 4A.

Explaining the reasons behind the deal CEO of THQ Nordic, Lars Wingefors, wrote "Koch Media has a long history of profitability despite losses incurred from some less successful game releases. THQ Nordic is convinced that the development studios of Deep Silver as part of THQ Nordic will successfully deliver at least four ongoing AAA game projects including Metro Exodus as well as the next Volition Studio AAA release and the next Dambuster Studio AAA release, together with a number of other game development and publishing titles". Wingefors believes that the combined talents under the wing of THQ Nordic will provide a strong foundation for cash flow and profitability.

Going forward, THQ Nordic says that Koch Media GmbH and its subsidiaries will continue to operate as independent entities. However it will look at cost savings and synergies from combining both groups’ IPs, assets, and development capacity.

 

THQ Nordic

Koch Media

Combined

Internal development studios

10 

External development studios

18 

26 

Total development studios

25 

11 

36 

       

Sales, marketing & publishing offices

11 

12 

       

Internal developers headcount

178 

339 

517 

Internal non-development headcount

55 

427 

482 

Total internal headcount

233 

766 

999 

Total external developers headcount

229 

415 

644 

Total headcount (internal + external)

462 

1,181 

1,643 

       

Development pipeline

     

Announced by December 31, 2017

12 

17 

Unannounced by December 31, 2017

24 

33 

Total game development projects

36 

14 

50 

       

Total number of IP´s

91 

15 

106 

                                                                                                                                      



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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I thought THQ had gone under a while ago….i'm clearly not up to speed on these things lol
shaithis
I thought THQ had gone under a while ago….i'm clearly not up to speed on these things lol

It did but the trademark was bought up by Nordic Games.
gotta look at that headcount and wonder…. what gives? Why merge if not for savings.

Fingers crossed for everyone's job security
Zak33
gotta look at that headcount and wonder…. what gives? Why merge if not for savings.

Fingers crossed for everyone's job security

It looks more likely it was for game IP as that's a strong list of games however it also looks like Koch had a large team to support not just development but films too. I wouldn't be surprised if that part is quietly dropped so I'd worry for my job there (large non-developer head count). They also appear to have bigger dev teams per game/studio which might be something THQ think they can cut back on EA style (i.e. less devs, tight deadlines = developer burn out and buggy games).
I thought THQ nordic owned piranha bytes who made Gothic, Risen and ELEX games,but they only publish them. thank goodness! as i thought that would be the end of those type of games. but like Zak33 has said why buy unless savings are to be made somewhere, its got to be for financial benefit in the end