Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has acknowledged that it’s "way too early" for the company to start acquiring new studios and that what remained after their Restructuring Program was not for sale. Read on to learn more about Wingefors’ full statement.
Embracer CEO Thinks It’s Too Early to Acquire New Studios
Company-wide Restructuring Program Comes to a Close
After nearly a year of shedding positions, canceling major projects, and shutting down studios like Saints Row’s Volition and Timeplsitters’ Free Radical, Embracer Group’s company-wide restructuring program comes to a close, as confirmed by Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors in an investor call.
First transcribed by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the call also revealed Embracer’s next step after laying off nearly 1300 employees over roughly ten months. "Looking to do more [mergers and acquisitions] deals – I think it's way too early to start talking about restarting the M&A engines again," said Wingefors on the topic of Embracer’s next acquisitions.
"Now we are in the late phases of the consideration into the future of the group, and that's our highest focus and priority – how we set up ourselves and structure ourselves, and utilize [the assets] we have within the group, and have them work together, and how we leverage them better working together, utilizing different functions," he continued. "I think that's our focus right now – to increase profitability and cashflow generation, by simply making better products and games."
Embracer’s Remaining Studios are Not For Sale
Interestingly, Wingefors affirmed that, despite the company’s many studio shutdowns and additional acquisitions during their restructuring, the studios and assets that remained were not for sale.
"We are ending the restructuring [program] now, end of March, and the Gearbox restructuring process has been part of that [program]. Now we are getting approached, I would say not quite daily, but on a weekly basis, by companies that would like to acquire certain assets within the group," Wingefors said. "And I've been very clear that they're not for sale, because they're a very important part for the group and for the shareholders of the group going forward."
Sources:
Embracer CEO says it's "way too early" for the company to "start talking about" acquiring new studios
Embracer say their restructure is over, but it's "too early" to start acquiring studios again
Who would wanna be acquired by Embracer at this point? Get bought up just to get shut down or sold off again, and cancel a bunch of potentially great games in the making while laying off tons of people