According to a report from Nikkei, Sammy Sega Holdings will purchase Index, the parent company of Atlus for 14 billion yen, which converts to about 142 million US dollars. About a month ago, it was reported that Sega had bid on Atlus for only 20 billion yen. Sega’s purchase of Atlus will most likely be finalized this November.
For those of you that don’t know Atlus is the developer of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Trauma Center, Etrian Odyssey, and many other popular franchises.
According to Nikkei, Sega Sammy’s absorption of Index will strengthen Sega’s position in consumer in portable games. Sega Sammy has reported falling software sales in consumer and portable games in the past 2 years, mostly in Europe and North America, Sega has also become infamous recently for not localizing their games.
Back in June, Index was suspected for improper accounting. They reported that they earned a total of 18.3 billion yen last year from console/portable system games and smartphone games, however, investigators reported that they were exaggerating revenues using round-trip transactions. After that Index filed for civil rehabilitation bankruptcy, listing about 24.5 billion yen (about US$250 million) in debts.
Yesterday Sega issued the following news: “It was reported by some in the media today that our company would take over Index Corporation. However, this is not what our company has announced.”
Source: http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASDD1801E_Y3A910C1000000/
