Square Enix increases stake in Eidos

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Feb 24, 2009 10:51 am PT

Japanese publisher's £9.39 million buyout of 29.35 million shares puts it in control of more than one third of financially lagging British publisher.

Eidos is underwater, in more ways than one...

Two weeks ago, Japanese publisher Square Enix stunned the game industry by announcing that it was making a takeover bid for Eidos Interactive. Facing all but certain financial doom after disappointing sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld, the board of the British publisher, previously known as SCi Entertainment, unanimously urged its shareholders to accept the £84.3 million (around $121.76 million), 32p ($0.46) per-share bid.

On Monday, Square Enix announced that two major Eidos shareholders had accepted the 32p-per-share offer. Pioneer Investment Management Ltd. sold 27,349,341 shares, and Insight Investment Management unloaded 2 million shares. For the combined 29,349,341 shares, representing about 11.13 percent of Eidos' issued stock, the Final Fantasy XIII maker paid £9,391,789 ($13.52 million).

The dual purchase puts Square Enix much closer to acquiring majority ownership in Eidos. Including its own holdings, the company now has "irrevocable undertakings to vote in favor of the (buyout) resolution" from holders of 84,947,489 Eidos shares, or 32.23 percent of the company's voting stock. It also has a letter of intent from holders of a further 8,919,628 shares comprising approximately 3.38 percent of Eidos shares, putting its total control at 35.61 percent of the company--still 14.40 percent short of having majority control.

36 Comments

  • davme_mcreg

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 7:49 am PT

    ok so as someone who has never liked any of the FF games (purely because turn based anything is slow and feels like a chore) and as someone who loved assassins creed/hitman because stealthy assassinations are awesome this is a sad sad day. make tomb raider into a stealthy steal and assassinate game and there is a hit, oh wait her breasts would get in the way of the laser system lol.

  • lionheart234

    Posted Mar 1, 2009 7:45 am PT

    go square go..... xD

  • downloadthefile

    Posted Feb 28, 2009 11:20 pm PT

    honestly, square enix has made many games that i wouldnt even rent...oblivion and fable 2, as well as other smaller titles are just more enjoyable than the same formula again and again.

  • Tentaculat

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 4:47 am PT

    Well, at least now they will be called S.E.E. wich is kinda cool. Aside from that, Eidos has had games with great stories and same goes for S/E, so maybe we'll get some really nice RPGs out of this.

  • cooldude03

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 2:30 am PT

    Does this mean next Tomb Raider and Hitman games will be turn based epic adventures that are replicas of all the clones that Square Enix has made for years? Or maybe I'm just an ignorant out of touch shooter fan that believes that the reason Tomb Raider sales are down is because gamers get tired off buying Tomb Raider once a year with a big DLC purchase in between each new retail release and yet no significant changes are being made. It like these Tomb Raider games are just being reskin and release with intent to sell DLC. BTW I like Square Enix because thay put thought and time into the production of their games. They have not subscribed to the American game company's belief that a franchise must be rerelease every year in order to be successful and profitable. Hopefully Square Enix's influence can revive the many beloved Eidos franchises.

  • envybianchi

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 4:59 pm PT

    I hope everything will work out for Square Enix. I hope they will still keep making Final Fantasy games.

  • blancobo

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 2:32 pm PT

    This move makes me wonder about a Hitman RPG game... yeah! I don't agree either. I do hope that the acquisition will bring a better name and more stability to the Eidos franchise and will aslo flourish in better and more innovative gaming solutions. Tough times require tough measures... the gaming industry was not going to be exempt of the challenges that the world economy is facing and this is a great opportunity for a change and some fresher and newer ideas.

  • Mist00

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 2:15 pm PT

    what i wonder is if se will allow these foreign developers to work on japanese titles or will they just do their own things and have markets in both west and east fronts

  • ahpuck

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 1:32 pm PT

    I think this is Squenix answer to Capcom, which seems to be doing much, much better, in the west than they are. Lets hope it works for them.

  • Kleeyook

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 12:51 pm PT

    They'll do just fine!

  • swamptick

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 12:40 pm PT

    I think it will work out fine.

  • Glade_Gnarr

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 12:30 pm PT

    If the buyouts continue, in the end we're going to be stuck with very few developers, which could be bad or good, either the games could get more creative since everybody's going to be filthy rich and have enough money to take risks or they could go the way of Nintendo and EA before them, making casual games and remakes till they suck the life out of they're fans.

  • SirCroft

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 7:23 am PT

    @ The bunch of people saying "WTF? Buying Eidos?!": Square Enix's goal is to expand their market to the west, in this case, to Europe. Buying a western company would bring a number of western titles to their portipholio, therefore making Square Enix more popular in this side of the Earth, probably as popular as they are in Japan. "Why Eidos?" you ask. Well, it's obvious, with Eidos almost shutting their doors, it's clear that it would be easier for them to buy a copany near bankruptcy with great fanchises under their name.

  • PodXCOM

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 2:14 am PT

    Square Enix and Eidos needs this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZVlOPcbjU&feature=channel_page

  • PreLuDe_DuDe

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 9:18 pm PT

    *sigh* SquareEnix hasnt been paying attention to making new original JRPGs, but would rather concentrate on weak spinoffs and remakes. Their rpgs are losing the "Squaresoft" charm and out of the blue they are trying to acquire Eidos. Eidos? Eidos?? Eidos??!

    Im definitely starting to lose hope, patience, and loyalty. Yes I will continue to purchase SE games but only sticking to FF franchise. This gives me one more reason to love ATLUS.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 8:05 pm PT

    more hitman would be nice

  • Sendmn23

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 6:13 pm PT

    ......sigh! why doesn't square enix spend money on remaking Final Fantasy 7 with graphics compareable to Advent Children? They spend money on a company who is losing its grasp on developing video games. Eidos seems stuck in the past and hasn't been ready to move to the next evolution in interactive entertainment. Everyone is changing the way the make video games.... everyone seems to be growing in the way of game concepts, game design and story. yet for some reason Eidos really seems stuck in the past..... Square Enix in my opinion just wasted alot of precious money for what have could be spent on a better project.

  • lil_d_mack_314

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 5:41 pm PT

    as long as they put out another Hitman i'll be happy

  • accesdenied

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 2:02 pm PT

    lol, square is smart if they own eidos it means that they wont have to pay to have there games sold in the uk since they own a business that is establish there already that was part of the reason they did that square ea deal though it gone sour. things should prove interesting if they do get eidos

  • josef8

    Posted Feb 24, 2009 1:47 pm PT

    wtf -Raiden-, japan taking the whole gaming industry??!!

    BLASPHEMY

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