Take-Two Interactive buys Gearbox Entertainment for $460 million
The Swedish Embracer Group holding has indeed decided to sell Gearbox Entertainment, best known for the Borderlands series of games. He entered into a sales agreement with Take-Two Interactive. The amount of the transaction is 4.9 billion Swedish kronor or $ 460 million.
Borderlands 3
Take-Two Interactive will not receive all of Gearbox Entertainment's assets. It will include:
- Gearbox Software;
- Gearbox Montréal;
- Gearbox Studio Quebec.
Also, under the terms of the deal, Take-Two Interactive will get the franchises Borderlands, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms and Duke Nukem.
Embracer Group will have:
- A division of Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, which operated under the name Perfect World Entertainment until 2021. The Swedish holding company will retain the publishing rights to the games of the Remnant series, Hyper Light Breaker and "other notable unannounced projects." The division will be renamed;
- Lost Boys Interactive;
- Captured Dimensions;
- Cryptic Studios along with the games Neverwinter Online and Star Trek Online.
Gearbox Entertainment will become part of 2K. Gearbox Entertainment co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford will continue to lead the company.
Take-Two Interactive added in its own statement that it would consider investments in existing Gearbox Entertainment franchises and new projects. Gearbox Entertainment is currently working on six games, five of which are sequels. The two sequels are new parts of Borderlands and Homeworld.
Take-Two Interactive will fully pay for the purchase of Gearbox Entertainment with its shares. Embracer Group announced that it is going to sell these shares shortly after the closing of the transaction.
The deal is expected to be closed by the end of June 2024.
"With this deal, we will reduce business risks, increase profitability and become a more efficient and focused company," said Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors. "We have explored several options for a deal with Gearbox, and I am glad that we have come to a decision that meets the interests of all stakeholders. Randy and his team have been great colleagues over the past few years, and I would like to thank them for that. Gearbox is one of the best developers in the world, and I am confident that Gearbox will continue to create innovative games and thrive in its new home as part of Take-Two."
Embracer Group's plans to get rid of Gearbox Entertainment became known in September 2023. Reuters sources found out that the holding company has sought advice from Goldman Sachs and Arem & What about the sale of Borderlands authors after I received a purchase offer from "third parties".
Shortly after, Gearbox Entertainment's director of public relations, Dan Hewitt, sent an email to employees confirming that the company could be sold. However, he indicated that the Embracer Group is considering several options, including separating Gearbox Entertainment into an independent company, and has not yet made a final decision.
At the end of February, Kotaku sources said that Embracer Group had decided to sell Gearbox Entertainment after all and the deal was nearing completion.
Embracer Group bought Gearbox Entertainment in February 2021. She immediately paid the developers $363 million and promised to transfer another $ 1.02 billion if the company reaches certain targets within six years.
