Author Topic: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.  (Read 55546 times)

Queen of Eels

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NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« on: December 12, 2012, 07:29:08 PM »
Not sure what this means for us:

"NCsoft Corporation announced that it will sell its entire 809 million shares of NC Interactive Inc., which is mainly engaged in the online game service, for KRW 78,348,368,000, on December 24, 2012, for newly establishing company."

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/036570.KS/key-developments/article/2658283

Also, "NCsoft Corporation announced that it will establish a new wholly owned subsidiary in the United States to establish an entity which can be in charge of the United States and Europe businesses. The new entity, to be capitalized at KRW 50,500 million, will be mainly engaged in the management of the United States and Europe subsidiaries. The expected transaction settlement date is December 24, 2012. "

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/036570.KS/key-developments/article/2658297

TimtheEnchanter

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2012, 07:30:42 PM »
So much for the "pulling out of the West" theory?

Queen of Eels

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2012, 07:37:45 PM »
I just hope it doesn't make for a great big ball o' red tape around the IP.

Lily Barclay

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2012, 07:43:12 PM »
So what exactly does this mean for CoH? Good thing? Bad thing? Who the heck knows?

Edit: Small voice in the back of my head wondering if this is Disney buying it?
« Last Edit: December 12, 2012, 07:48:16 PM by Lily Barclay »

SARobb

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2012, 07:51:35 PM »
I donno...
I doubt it's going make things easier... but hopefully I'm totally wrong.
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Starsman

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2012, 07:55:48 PM »
This is... interesting...

How much does "NC Interactive Inc" actually own? And if it's not entirely owned by NCSoft, who else owns shares on it?

I am no business guy... but I smell a lot of trouble and HUGE restructuring changes coming to the West branches...

If they are smart, consolidation into a single location is in place. No matter what, I am sure all remaining studios got to hold tight, there are more layoffs coming.

BTW they may still be set to leave the West. Did they specify if this was going to be an operating subsidiary? They may as easily set up a non-operating subsidiary that exists on paper only (i.e. stocks, bonds, articles of incorporation) and use the identity and rolling stock of the parent company.

Everyone at all studios in NCSoft should be VERY scared.

Edit:

Wait... this new subsidiary "will be mainly engaged in the management of the United States and Europe subsidiaries."...

A subsidiary to manage subsidiary... sounds like distancing yourself, setting a man in the middle, or perhaps a way to force more control into these grandchild subsidiaries...
For the sake of the community: please stop the cultural "research" in your attempt to put blame on the game's cancelation.

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mikoroshi

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2012, 08:03:01 PM »
Am I reading this right?  They're selling of $72 million worth of shares... and starting a new company with less money than I used to make in a year before I lost my job?  Or does that roughly $47,000 mean something else, like cost-per-share-of-new-company?

Edit: I done grammar good.  Been awake nearly 90 hours now.


If they had just said 50.5 billion in the OP instead of 50,500 million I would've done math better.  OK.  That makes more sense.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2012, 08:16:09 PM by mikoroshi »
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Surelle

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2012, 08:04:26 PM »
ZOMG, wut

I can't leave you people alone for five minutes!  Here I was, innocently coming back here to link Mercedes' Korea Times interview in yet another blog post, and now my head is positively spinning!

Is CoH being sold to another publisher, some new entity that will control NA/EU?  And for that matter, are Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, Exteel and their other closed down IPs being sold off to someone else now too? 

And what does this mean for EU's universally-reviled publisher GameForge and their version of Aion EU?  And for Lineage 2 EU's Current publisher, Innova? 

And what about Guild Wars 1 & 2? 

Is this new company going to be another intermediary, running ArenaNet, and overseeing the EU publishers of Aion and Lineage 2 as well as overseeing NCWest and their versions of Aion NA and Lineage NA, or is NCWest, which just had layoffs, getting closed down and replaced altogether by this new company?

Oh man, I am so confused.  Christmas Eve is gonna be a total bugger now, huh?   ;)

It would be mega cool if *puts on fantasy glasses* it WAS Disney buying the whole thing in a way-- I mean, who the heck else in NA and EU has the money to do this?  Okay, I have to go read those articles in full.  And I need caffeine!
« Last Edit: December 12, 2012, 08:11:59 PM by Surelle »

Mister Bison

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2012, 08:10:18 PM »
ZOMG, wut
Is CoH being sold to another publisher?  And for that matter, are Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, Exteel and their other closed down IPs being sold off too? 
From what I can fathom, this would be the publisher being sold by the mother firm. NC Interactive is the US subsidiary of NCSoft in America, and for a time at least, it was it that held the license bought from Cryptic's hand, and opened Paragon Studios.

This would be our cue to swoop in and buy the whole pancake machine. I suspect it also hase other licenses waiting too, like Tabula Rasa. For 78,348,368,000 KW (that would be 70 M$ right ?) that's a bargain I would say.

About Exteel, it may have the license, but Exteel 2 is under the works, that's why it has closed and C&D letters are sent left and right to emulation efforts.
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therain93

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2012, 08:11:57 PM »
Am I reading this right?  They're selling of $72 million worth of shares... and starting a new company with less money than I used to make in a year before I lost my job?  Or does that roughly $47,000 mean something else, like cost-per-share-of-new-company?

Edit: I done grammar good.  Been awake nearly 90 hours now.
The new company will be started with KRW 50,500 million -- add six zeroes to the end of the 50,500 for KRW 50,500,000,000  ( ' ;
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therain93

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2012, 08:13:44 PM »
ZOMG, wut

I can't leave you people alone for five minutes!  Here I was, innocently coming back here to link Mercedes' Korea Times interview in yet another blog post, and now my head is positively spinning!

Is CoH being sold to another publisher, some new entity that will control NA/EU?  And for that matter, are Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, Exteel and their other closed down IPs being sold off to someone else now too? 

And what does this mean for EU's universally-reviled publisher GameForge and their version of Aion EU?  And for Lineage 2 EU's Current publisher, Innova? 

And what about Guild Wars 1 & 2? 

Is this new company going to be another intermediary, running ArenaNet, and overseeing the EU publishers of Aion and Lineage 2 as well as overseeing NCWest and their versions of Aion NA and Lineage NA, or is NCWest, which just had layoffs, getting closed down and replaced altogether by this new company?

Oh man, I am so confused.  Christmas Eve is gonna be a total bugger now, huh?   ;)

It would be mega cool if *puts on fantasy glasses* it WAS Disney buying the whole thing in a way-- I mean, who the heck else in NA and EU has the money to do this?  Okay, I have to go read those articles in full.  And I need caffeine!
It reads as NCsoft selling it to itself -- basically a transfer of assets, probably for better tax management.
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mikoroshi

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2012, 08:14:22 PM »
A thought before I drift off for a bit:

This is not a thing that a corporation the size of NCSoft does arbitrarily and at a moment's notice.  They've been meeting, brainstorming, crunching numbers, and weighing the options for some time now.

In fact, it is probably unrelated to our efforts (but I won't tell anyone if you don't).

The point I'm trying to make is:

NCSoft has been planning this for a while.  They've been making tactical moves to make it easier.  It's why they've been silent about various issues, and it's why they were so terse about "exhausting their options."  They wanted the new company to deal with that.  Main NCSoft corporate is done with the West.  I think they've learned that Westerners are not keen on grinding gear-fests, and it's a pain to micromanage two entirely polar methods of creating, marketing, and maintaining games.

So they're cutting and running, but making sure they've still got their fingers in the Western market to get some rainy day money.

If you see me posting here, you need to tell me to stop it and get back to writing.

mikoroshi

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2012, 08:15:11 PM »
The new company will be started with KRW 50,500 million -- add six zeroes to the end of the 50,500 for KRW 50,500,000,000  ( ' ;

That changes everything.  They shoulda just said 50.5 billion and then I wouldn't have been stupid.
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therain93

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2012, 08:17:51 PM »
A thought before I drift off for a bit:

This is not a thing that a corporation the size of NCSoft does arbitrarily and at a moment's notice.  They've been meeting, brainstorming, crunching numbers, and weighing the options for some time now.

In fact, it is probably unrelated to our efforts (but I won't tell anyone if you don't).

The point I'm trying to make is:

NCSoft has been planning this for a while.  They've been making tactical moves to make it easier.  It's why they've been silent about various issues, and it's why they were so terse about "exhausting their options."  They wanted the new company to deal with that.  Main NCSoft corporate is done with the West.  I think they've learned that Westerners are not keen on grinding gear-fests, and it's a pain to micromanage two entirely polar methods of creating, marketing, and maintaining games.

So they're cutting and running, but making sure they've still got their fingers in the Western market to get some rainy day money.
They likely were retaining some tax consultants for some time to determine what would be the most effective way to manage assets and taxation of them.  It will be interesting to see if the CoH license as well as other old licenses are sold to the new subsidiary.
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TonyV

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2012, 08:18:58 PM »
For the record, this has not escaped my attention, but I literally just found out about it.  I don't know exactly what it means, I'm still working on parsing it and figuring out what's going on.  Obviously, if this presents an opportunity for City of Heroes to be acquired by a third party, we will be all over it.  If not, we'll still keep on keepin' on.

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2012, 08:20:02 PM »
For the record, this has not escaped my attention, but I literally just found out about it.  I don't know exactly what it means, I'm still working on parsing it and figuring out what's going on.  Obviously, if this presents an opportunity for City of Heroes to be acquired by a third party, we will be all over it.  If not, we'll still keep on keepin' on.

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dwturducken

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2012, 08:22:28 PM »
Thank you, Tony. I was about to say we need a read from one of our resident Very Smart People (hereafter abbreviated "VSP").

The wording is (deliberately?) vague, but i do not see it saying that they are creating a new subsidiary that will buy the old one, but two transactions that, for whatever reason, are occurring on the same day. It smells to me like part of the legal entanglements that VV reported.

Whatever the interpretation, my cautious optimism just incremented.
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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #17 on: December 12, 2012, 08:24:25 PM »
They're basically recreating NCsoft West.

This wouldn't impact COH in any way.

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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #18 on: December 12, 2012, 08:24:59 PM »
We're talking around $48 million US.  Not really a lot of money.

On one hand you could say they are divesting themselves from the west and it may have been yet another corporate reason to shut down Paragon.

As for why do they say 50,500 million Vs billion, two reasons.  First all business values are reported in either thousands or millions.  Second, which probably explains the first, there is actually two definitions for billion, one thousand million and one million million.  English speaking countries tend to use the first definition, the rest of Europe uses the second.  However everybody agrees what a million is.
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Re: NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.
« Reply #19 on: December 12, 2012, 08:26:54 PM »
They're basically recreating NCsoft West.

This wouldn't impact COH in any way.
It would, because NCSoft West is detaining the IP for City of Heroes. So NCSoft (as in the main firm, the Korean headquarters) won't be able to sell it. More, they are selling it with NCSoft West.

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