Take-Two Acquires Borderlands Developer Gearbox from Embracer for $460 Million - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 28 March 2024 / 2,372 Views
Take-Two Interactive Software announced it acquiring The Gearbox Entertainment Company from Embracer Group for $460 million.
Gearbox will operate as a studio under the 2K label and will continue to be led by founder and CEO Randy Pitchford, as well as by his management team.
The developer "has six key interactive entertainment projects in various stages of development, including five sequels, two of which are from the Borderlands and Homeworld franchises, and at least one exciting new intellectual property."
Once the sale closes, The Gearbox Entertainment Company will retain Gearbox Software, Gearbox Montreal, Gearbox Studio Quebec, and the Borderlands, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem franchises.
Embracer Group will retain Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, which will be renamed. The company will also continue to own the publishing rights to the Remnant franchise, Hyper Light Breaker, and other "notable unannounced game releases," as well as Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, and Captured Dimensions. The retained companies will be integrated into other parts of Embracer Group.
"Our acquisition of Gearbox is an exciting moment for Take-Two and will strengthen our industry-leading creative talent and portfolio of owned intellectual property, including the iconic Borderlands franchise," said the Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Strauss Zelnick. "This combination enhances the financial profile of our existing projects with Gearbox and unlocks the opportunity for us to drive increased long-term growth by leveraging the full resources of Take-Two across all of Gearbox’s exciting initiatives."
The President of 2K David Ismailer added, "With nearly 20 years of history working together, Gearbox has played an integral role in our success, given their unique ability to create interactive entertainment experiences that feature beloved characters, exciting new worlds, and humorous storytelling. We are thrilled to welcome Randy Pitchford and his team of passionate, talented developers to 2K and we look forward to releasing numerous projects in the future as colleagues. We have loved partnering with Gearbox on every iteration of the Borderlands franchise and are excited to be in active development on the next installment in the series."
We're incredibly proud to announce we're joining the Take-Two Interactive/@2K family. pic.twitter.com/ot1gJK4TUp
— GearboxOfficial (@GearboxOfficial) March 28, 2024
Pitchford stated, "Joining forces with Take-Two Interactive and 2K will help Gearbox ascend to our next level. Take-Two and 2K have demonstrated repeatedly their commitment to our engine of generating creativity, happiness, and profit. We set the bar for interactive entertainment and achieved remarkable results with groundbreaking, record-setting games when we worked together at arm's length as partners. I’m incredibly excited about what we can accomplish now that we're fully aligned as one."
Embracer Group originally acquired The Gearbox Entertainment Company in February 2021 for $1.3 billion.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
I'm kind of confused as to why TTWO didn't own Gearbox to begin with, especially after Borderlands became a success.
Oh dear - that's quite a difference from what Embracer payed to acquire them in the first place.
The value increased, Embracer only paid 360M.
Embracer paid $1.3b for Gearbox, not $360m.
Embracer paid 1.3~ Billion and sold it for 460~ million.
But that was for "Gearbox Entertainment" which includes Gearbox software, so the purchase may exclude the publisher and other studios that are under the Gearbox brand like Lost boys interactive and Cryptic studios.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gearbox_Software
Embracer has been a perfect example of financial mismanagement.
They dumped millions of shares into the market to raise capital then went on a buying spree, purchasing struggling studios and publishers and failed to turn them around and now needs to shed assets to make shareholders happy.
They also did a lot of their buying during a boom time for video games. That boom time is now over. Even the best managed companies have been impacted, big time, by the slowdown.
I'm not bot suggesting that you are wrong regarding mismanagement. I'm just saying that I don't think it is quite that simple.
Factually incorrect, they only paid 360M. The rest was over the course of the next 6 years which never happened, so no, they didnt pay the rest.
I know you are probably reading one article saying that and using it as "the" source. But no, if not 1.3B, not far from it, as they would have to honor that, and it is part of the sales.
That's a much better fit for Gearbox and its IPs.
wow... from $1.3B to $460,M, that's a lose. I mean I do not think the 1.3B made any sense in the first place but this was def. not a good transaction for Embacer.
Embracer never paid 1.3B, they paid only 360M, so the value increased. The rest of the money to reach 1.3B was over 6 years to meet certain targets which they never paid.
They would have to pay out the full amount, or come to a settlement, before they sold them on. That money was part of the original valuation of the company, you can’t just sell them on before it’s due and make an easy profit.
I figured Gearbox would sell for a relatively low price. They saw how bad the movie looks and wanted a clean break.
