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Square-Enix offers to buy Edios; Edios stock increases
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Today, Square Enix put in an offer to buy European publisher Eidos.
Could one of the ramifications of the Eidos buyout by Square-Enix be a Tomb Raider/ Final Fantasy crossover? Well it worked for Kingdom Hearts...
In a detailed offer released today, Square Enix offered to purchase Eidos at a rate of £32 per share (about £84.3 million total) or, according to S-E, 258% of what the value of the company when they drafted the deal. While the deal looks good, it still has to pass through a 75% shareholder vote in order to be official.
Gamers are unsure the purpose of buying the faltering publisher, though it appears that perhaps Squeenix is looking to solidify their presence in Europe to shore up the sagging Japanese market. If so, this would be a boon to EU (as well as Australia/New Zealand) gamers, since they usually get the short shrift as far as release dates go.
Even if that is the case, that creates several more unanswered questions. Specifically, what would Square-Enix do with the IP that Eidos owns? While Lara Croft, Agent 47 , and Garett the Thief have some cultural capital, what about middling titles such as Kane & Lynch? Moreover, what will be the fate of developers who work for Eidos such as Crystal Dynamics? One would hardly believe Squeenix, while more than just an RPG firehouse with its Front Mission sci-fi tactics series , anime-licensed titles such as the Full Metal Alchemist series, and its food,wine, travel, and culture DS Style series for the DS, would be interested in developing games like Hitman or the new Monster Labs? Perhaps we may see some capriciousness from the RPG developer/publisher? A Final Fantasy/Tomb Raider crossover? Stranger things have happened.
The only sure piece of information at the moment, aside from details of the sale, is Eidos's stock value more than doubled today on the London Stock Exchange, from £14 to £31.75 or about 25p below Square-Enix's asking price. It also seems Time Warner, who has a 20% stake in Eidos, has reported it won't be fighting off the sale.
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