Square Enix is aiming to buy half of Tecmo in the wake of the company’s recent troubled history in what it is calling a “friendly deal”.
Square Enix president Yoichi Wada presented the offer as an attempt to rescue Tecmo. Tecmo has been rocked by a declining stock price, class-action lawsuits, and the departure of and legal action by star designer Tomonobu Itagaki in the span of two months. And then just last week, Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda abruptly stepped down, citing personal reasons.
To accomplish this, Square Enix intends to buy a majority stake in Tecmo by purchasing over half of the companies shares at 920 yen each, 30% more than the studios previous closing price. Square Enix is stating that the deal is a “friendly” one and that they would not pursue it further if Tecmo doesn’t respond positively to the buyout by September 4th or reject the deal outright.
“Tecmo is a group of excellent creators with a proven track record in the global market, which is a precious human resource of Japan,” explained Wada. “We, however, cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances surrounding Tecmo. We believe that Tecmo will be able to make a great leap forward by joining Square Enix Group, which will provide the group with further growth opportunities as well.”
Though Tecmo has not yet publicly commented on Square Enix’s offer, it is likely tempting to many shareholders. The ¥920 ($8.46) per share offer is a 30 percent premium on Tecmo’s ¥706 ($6.49) closing price last Thursday. The Bloomberg news service values the entire bid at 22.3 billion yen ($205 million). As a result of the offer, Tecmo stock shot up 14 percent to close ¥806 ($7.41) per share last week, with Square Enix’s stock rising 2.6 percent to ¥3,610 ($33.20). — Via 1up