Gizmondo Europe bankrupt

Tiger Telematics' UK subsidiary goes into receivership, cuts staff by half, further clouding the handheld-maker's future.

Last Tuesday, independent handheld-maker Tiger Telematics made a last-ditch effort to shore up the finances of its struggling British subsidiary, Gizmondo Europe Ltd., with a short-term loan of $5 million. Today, it appeared the company had secured the loan--but not in time to save its UK arm from bankruptcy.

This morning, Tiger filed an 8-K form under the heading "Bankruptcy or Receivership" with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The 8-K stated that "at the close of business on Friday January 20, 2006, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Gizmondo (Europe) Limited ('Gizmondo Europe') filed a High Court application for administration in the United Kingdom." The filing will protect the company from its creditors as it attempts a "financial restructuring of the business."

In today's filing, Tiger also announced that Gizmondo Europe has "made a reduction in payroll of approximately 50 percent of monthly staff costs during the week prior to the court application to reduce overall operating expenses of the business and significantly improve its prospects for a successful turnaround."

Gizmondo Europe's bankruptcy is just the latest blow to Tiger, whose Gizmondo handheld is among several that have tried to crack the Nintendo-dominated portable game market. To date, only one hanheld platform--the Sony PSP--has had any real success. Fellow independent hardware company Tapwave discontinued its Palm-based Zodiac. And despite a multibillion-dollar marketing and development push, Nokia's N-Gage cell-phone/game-deck hybrid has been all but ignored.

Tiger also used today's SEC filing to announced that it "will report shortly" on the status of its overall restructuring, which involves some $50 million in refinancing. As of press time, its stock was down $0.12 (7.41 percent), trading at $1.50.

181 Comments

  • nintendogamer64

    Posted Apr 17, 2006 7:54 pm PT

    nintendo is the only compony wich has had great succses in the handheld region.The PSP cant even keep up with the ''big N''

  • nintendogamer64

    Posted Apr 17, 2006 7:49 pm PT

    what n- gage hit rock bottom?....oh well bake to my DS

  • xxscammersxx

    Posted Apr 13, 2006 11:50 am PT

    yippie! i feel bad for employees though, wasting their time on this crappy handheld.

  • sugreev2001

    Posted Apr 7, 2006 5:47 am PT

    I would have loved to play all the Crash Bandicoot titles on my PSP,al the new ones are C$%p.I sure wish that this info becomes true in the near future.

  • REVOLUTIONfreak

    Posted Apr 5, 2006 3:19 pm PT

    this system was doomed before it began, besides software for it sucked. I mean...come on.....they literally had a game called Sticky Balls.....(chuckles)

  • superb_01

    Posted Mar 31, 2006 12:07 pm PT

    This thing is never goin to beat the PSP.

  • volumesoxxs

    Posted Mar 23, 2006 10:46 am PT

    YAYYY!!!!!!!!!

  • bobreturns

    Posted Mar 21, 2006 9:01 am PT


    duerdest
    To honest websites like GAMESPOT didn't help. GS never made an attempt to report on the handheld. It mentioned a few games but no reviews, previews, images etc.

    yeh but even if they dead none would pay attention it was obdviously going to fail

  • bobreturns

    Posted Mar 21, 2006 8:59 am PT


    Tomma1000000000
    who would buy a gizmondo though when you could get a DS?

    i agree the handheld market is ruled by nintendo even the psp can't crack it the DS rlz

  • twistedvenom1

    Posted Mar 20, 2006 3:54 am PT

    YOU NEVER KNOW TILL YOU TRY. WELL YOU GUYS TRIED, OH WELL.

  • UNOwen802

    Posted Mar 6, 2006 2:13 pm PT

    I didn't even know they were still making games for the N-gage. I'm sure Nintendo has a bulletin board somewhere in their offices marking each victory: Game Gear, Neo-Geo Pocket, etc.

  • Jpmadrox92

    Posted Mar 4, 2006 4:32 pm PT

    i only saw one thing for this at e3 2005...and that was it...its a travesty that nobody but microsoft sony and nintendo can make a console and sell it on the market.

  • jmegasite

    Posted Mar 2, 2006 3:38 pm PT

    I knew this was going to happen. I don't even see the games for sell where I live at. The only place I might see a few is at Gamestop, but that's it.

  • FANTALOVER

    Posted Feb 25, 2006 6:10 pm PT

    Man...NINTENDO DS Rules!!!!!!...Nokia,Sony,Atari,Sega.....couldn't or can't (Sony) beat it.

  • kboy23

    Posted Feb 21, 2006 4:51 pm PT

    If the n-gage ever hits big tell me before the world is destroyed.

  • albisho02

    Posted Feb 21, 2006 9:34 am PT

    Its only Gizmondo Europe and they are not gone yet. The problem with the Gizmondo is obvously the marketing and that they haven't released the promised games (some actually look good). The Gizmondo is not just a games console its a 'life console'. A $30 investment and you can send emails for free from anywhere within tri-band coverage! I'm also sure you must be able to hack the games as they come on SD cards!! If they pick themselves up of the ground they may be worth buying (Just maybe).

  • sammytu

    Posted Feb 11, 2006 10:27 pm PT

    Yah what the hell is that!!!!!!!!!

  • ctownsoldier09

    Posted Feb 3, 2006 6:31 pm PT

    *dum dum dadum...dum dadum..dadum dadum*
    (funeral music)

  • gruntyking117

    Posted Feb 3, 2006 5:02 pm PT

    I have a Gizmondo. It's more comfortable than the DS, and has a very nice graphics engine. Too bad this is the system's fate, Tiger Telematics didn't invest in marketing, so instead of sales; death. I hope that they unlock homebrew soon.

  • IshizuXeromagi

    Posted Feb 2, 2006 11:15 pm PT

    I would just like to say the psp is not a flop, it's selling rate is higher then the gba sp. And also, I feel sorry for those halve of the staff who got laid off. But really, they did a poor job in marketing and they were no good games really.

  • psp41

    Posted Feb 1, 2006 10:02 am PT

    bye gizmondo

  • ctownsoldier09

    Posted Jan 30, 2006 7:15 pm PT

    Does anyone actually still own an Ngage? I pawned mine off rather quickly....I'd rather play the demo of bejeweled on my cell phone....

    Adrian.

  • bcfcsoccer

    Posted Jan 30, 2006 5:13 pm PT

    gizmondo. did anyone care?

  • Hooblagatos

    Posted Jan 29, 2006 8:40 am PT

    Ok for one thing going into bankrupsy doesn't always mean a company is closing its door for good, look up Chapter 11 with Kmart or Earthlink for example.

    Another thing, Gizmondo Europe is the one filing for bankrupsy not Tiger Telematics nor Gizmondo Studios. So support even if there is little of it can continue for the Gizmondo in the form of new games from Gizmondo Studio or if they can get their act together promoting from Tiger Telematics.

    In other words all this means is you will not being seeing the Gizmondo Widescreen anytime soon. Not like any of you care anyway.

  • DevilHacker

    Posted Jan 28, 2006 9:09 pm PT

    "NGAGE exceeds expectations by selling -12 systems today! Ngage is probably a bigger flop than the Virtual Boy. Now THAT'S saying something. Adrian. "

    I believe the total is now at 4million...
    Now, go post were someone cares. The N-Gage is still alive, and will always be. Nokia already said they were going to continue their support for the platform so stop your flaming of an platform you know nothing about.

  • ctownsoldier09

    Posted Jan 28, 2006 7:41 pm PT

    NGAGE exceeds expectations by selling -12 systems today!
    Ngage is probably a bigger flop than the Virtual Boy. Now THAT'S saying something.

    Adrian.

  • mazuku

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 6:27 pm PT

    ya thats true the PSP did crack the intendo handheld market but i doubt it will last longer term and this is comin from a PSP fan and player.

  • spatula_man

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 2:10 pm PT

    like they had a chance

  • NuclearDruid

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 2:06 pm PT

    The handheld was great you guys never gave it a chance

  • unnamed475

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 1:42 pm PT

    gizmondo is just anothing system for game collectors to put up on the self with every thing else. But really, you know a few of you are going to meet a guy in a year or two who owned one and you're going to be like "Wow! Thats kind of cool!"
    Don't get me wrong, other then that, it's useless.... then again, so is the PSP and DS... now I am going to get back to Sega's ultimate Hand held, the GameGear (j/k)

  • DELTAsnake

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 12:02 pm PT

    All I can say about this is (puts on Nelson Muntz voice), Ha Ha!

  • SamQur

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 11:38 am PT

    That was actually quite obvious, i mean who WOULD buy it?

  • Jouw

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 11:27 am PT

    Gizmondo was dead from the start, in my opinion.
    PSP and DS are the best. Get over it, Tiger.
    The Gizmondo is ugly too. A big round blob with a small screen and two shoulder buttons that look like the tops of food cans.
    And why do I need GPS exactly?
    I know my way around where I live well enough, I don't need a mapping system.
    What is the SMS message system for? That's why people have mobile phones.

  • kurt1234

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 11:15 am PT

    I never knew the thing exsisted.

  • hellowrockview

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 10:27 am PT

    name 3 games u can get on the gizmondo.....................told u yeh cant get any ive neva seen 1 anywere

  • LexLas

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 10:14 am PT

    Never heard of the Gizmo ? T hat tells you something there, Doesn't it ?

  • cross-dark-fire

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 9:20 am PT

    Gizmondo? Whats that?

  • Willdyer10

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 8:57 am PT

    its a shame really i went into the gismondo in the uk on saturday and had a go on one but halve of them dident have any games on them and the other halve which did have games were rubbish there were also lots of staff with nice t-shirts walking around doing nothing. Tiger really havent tried hard enough...
    this also shows that nintendo is unstoppable...

  • helluvagood

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 8:49 am PT

    i havent even heard of this gizmondo before

  • ofcourseyes

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 8:34 am PT

    another flop: Gizmondo

  • Supermodified

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 8:04 am PT

    I was looking forward to actually trying the stupid thing. It actually looked pretty cool. Oh well.

  • Samanosuke_01

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 7:56 am PT

    Why must idiotic Nintendo fanboys always have to some how bash the PSP and other handhelds? I perfect example of such stupidity would be videogamr49. The PSP is, at least, selling decent. Which is still a competion for Nintendo. As for the article, I knew it was going to fail. But you can't bash them for trying.

  • videogamr49

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 7:41 am PT

    "To date, only one hanheld platform--the Sony PSP--has had any real success."

    ...Yeah right...why get a Sony PSP when the Nintendo DS is out there? Also isn't "hanheld" spelt with a "d" after the "n"?

  • KakarotTheMonky

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 6:54 am PT

    GIZOWNED!

  • DarknessOfFate1

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 6:51 am PT

    Theer was no hope for them against the likes of ds and psp... Nokia will probberly be next.

  • GoddBless

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 5:38 am PT

    In the handheld market everyone loses to Nintendo, even SONY. What did they expect. They announced a widescreen model and it hadn't even launched in the US yet. I wonder how long the PSP and N-Gage are going to last.

  • ALLoY1717

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 5:36 am PT

    I can't say that I didn't see this coming.

  • ewjim

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 5:14 am PT

    Hah, not a big suprise... it's not compare to DS or PSP anyway!

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 4:57 am PT

    whoops...... they should have known though.

  • Jinggo78

    Posted Jan 24, 2006 4:44 am PT

    I never even heard of this thing until I read this article and looked it up. I blame poor planning. If you're going to go against the top companies ever to tread gaming history then you need to plan better. Even the name was poorly conceived.

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