Blane
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Shares in Sega went wild on the Tokyo market on Friday as rumours of a Microsoft buyout swirled around the company. Sega's share price rose to the maximum allowed limit by the Tokyo exchange before dipping slightly in afternoon trade to end up a hefty 11.3% -- the fourth-largest gain of the day.
Spokesmen for Microsoft and Sega both denied knowledge of any potential buyout, which rumours suggest will involve Microsoft purchasing all of CSK's stake in Sega. However, some suggest the stock movements aren't a result of the strength of the rumours but rather opportunistic investors. Toshio Ogawa, a manager at Izumi Securities, told Bloomberg, "There is a slight possibility of this, but it's more that investors are using this rumour to buy back their shares."
Despite that, there has been a lot of speculation as to the fate of Sega recently, with Microsoft and Nintendo emerging as possible suitors. Even then, it's not as clear-cut as just buying the company whole; not all of Sega may be up for sale, what remains may see large job cuts and rumblings on the grapevine suggest that some talent may quit Sega anyway. Sony has been eyeing up Visual Concepts as a replacement for their lame-duck 989 Sports titles, and VC is supposedly happy to oblige, given the poor sales for NFL2k3. And talk of Yu Suzuki looking to leave and set up on his own has been circulating for a while. The bottom line is, buying Sega doesn't automatically mean all the talent will remain.
Spokesmen for Microsoft and Sega both denied knowledge of any potential buyout, which rumours suggest will involve Microsoft purchasing all of CSK's stake in Sega. However, some suggest the stock movements aren't a result of the strength of the rumours but rather opportunistic investors. Toshio Ogawa, a manager at Izumi Securities, told Bloomberg, "There is a slight possibility of this, but it's more that investors are using this rumour to buy back their shares."
Despite that, there has been a lot of speculation as to the fate of Sega recently, with Microsoft and Nintendo emerging as possible suitors. Even then, it's not as clear-cut as just buying the company whole; not all of Sega may be up for sale, what remains may see large job cuts and rumblings on the grapevine suggest that some talent may quit Sega anyway. Sony has been eyeing up Visual Concepts as a replacement for their lame-duck 989 Sports titles, and VC is supposedly happy to oblige, given the poor sales for NFL2k3. And talk of Yu Suzuki looking to leave and set up on his own has been circulating for a while. The bottom line is, buying Sega doesn't automatically mean all the talent will remain.