THQ's Quick Sale Denied, Individual Franchises Up for Offer
Unfortunately, THQ's plan to keep its assets isn't working out.
Despite it barely being the dawn of a new year, THQ's having as little luck in 2013 as it did in 2012. In the past year, amid bouts of layoffs, the struggling publisher's dealt with poor sales and tanking stock shares. Bringing in Jason Rubin to the helm of the company as president has done relatively little to turn the company's fortunes around.
Recently, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, allowing the company to continue its regular operations, and announced a quick fire sale to stalking horse bidder Clearlake Capital Group. If the bankruptcy and sale were to be approved in court, THQ would be able to retain its properties and remain intact.
THQ's plan to keep itself together has been foiled by Judge Mary F. Walrath, who denied the sale after THQ investors and creditors filed an objection. The judge ruled that the speed of the sale didn't allow for other prospective bidders time to get involved in the sale.
The judge has set an auction date of January 22nd for THQ's assets to be sold individually. Some of the bidders include Warner Bros. and EA, who purchased THQ's UFC license earlier in mid-2012.
THQ has plenty of valuable assets up for grabs, including the Company of Heroes franchise, the sandbox satire Saints Row, and the upcoming South Park: Stick of Truth title in development at Obsidian Entertainment. And here's to hoping for the best outcome for THQ subsidiaries Relic Entertainment, Vigil Games, Volition, and THQ Montreal.
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Catherine Cai was a freelance news writer for Tom's Hardware. She covered a variety of tech industry news, ranging from PC components to PC and console gaming.
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kcorp2003 JJ1217What a sad day for gaming. THQ ITS IN THE GAME.Reply
Their auctioning off some IPs, all the games scheduled this year is still coming out. so cheer up. -
i cant believe thq of all companies goes bankrupt, especialy when considering they have a general high quality games. they are one of the best companies out there. but somehow they lost.Reply
sad day indeed. -
abbadon_34 Keep the RTS together and I'll be happy. Company of Heroes 2, maybe Dawn of War 3 with some Supreme Commander style zoom and multi-monitorReply -
kcorp2003 sdfgseri cant believe thq of all companies goes bankrupt, especialy when considering they have a general high quality games. they are one of the best companies out there. but somehow they lost.sad day indeed.Reply
I read an article on kotaku looking where they went bad, I know personally homefront was disaster. I liked Frontlines Fuel of war but no anti-cheat... anyways here's the link
http://kotaku.com/5881479/how-thq-went-from-bad-to-very-bad
also i should note, that THQ did came up with the whole "Online pass" that EA adopted. -
w0_od sdfgseri cant believe thq of all companies goes bankrupt, especialy when considering they have a general high quality games. they are one of the best companies out there. but somehow they lost.sad day indeed.Reply
decent games, some award winning and considered the best but terrible management who ran it to the ground. -
myromance123 Oh my goodness... Please not EA. Not Activision. Not Blizzard.Reply
I really hope the game companies like Relic and Volition stay alive... -
matt_b It's another sad story. The ratio of junk to quality developers is becoming too out of balance. Here's to hoping the likes of EA and Activision/Blizzard don't buy any of the IP or developer studios.Reply -
kcorp2003 matt_bIt's another sad story. The ratio of junk to quality developers is becoming too out of balance. Here's to hoping the likes of EA and Activision/Blizzard don't buy any of the IP or developer studios.Reply
What about Ubisoft, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, Warner Bros, Take-Two, Square Enix, Sony. Their all publishers too.