Embracer Group will go down as an example of buying too much too quickly and then flailing. The parent company of tabletop game publisher Asmodee has announced that it is splitting into three companies. They are, Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.
Each entity will be a separate, publicly listed company.
The three groups have been described as:
- Asmodee Group – the new entity will be comprised of the tabletop gaming portfolio of Embracer.
- Coffee Stain & Friends sounds like it’ll be focused on video games.
- Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will also be focused on video games as well as the steward of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider intellectual properties, among many others.
Embracer has also announced it has entered a financing agreement for EUR 900 million to repay existing debt as part of the Asmodee separation process. Asmodee was purchased by Embracer in December 2021 for €2.75 billion with €350 million paid to the main shareholder PAI and others with €2.4 billion in cash and debt refinancing.
According to the announcement, Asmodee is made up of 23 fully owned studios and 300+ IPs. Embracer recently sold off Miniature Market which it acquired as part of the Asmodee deal.
Embracer Group has been fumbling after recently teasing a major financing deal fell through and since the company has been selling off game studios and properties. It had become an entertainment juggernaut buying up video game stuidios, tabletop game studios, and Dark Horse, of which cross synergy has been lacking.
You can read the full announcement here including how the companies will be broken up.