Square Enix acquires Eidos Interactive for £84.3 million to form Square Enix Europe

Square Enix acquires Eidos Interactive for £84.3 million

Eidos Interactive converted into Square Enix Europe

Square Enix on the path to globalization

Square Enix acquires the publicly listed British games company Eidos Interactive for £84.3 million (approx. US$ 130 million), Eidos shares were suspended from trading on April 21, 2009, and the shares will be cancelled on May 6, 2009.

Edits became formally part of Square Enix on April 22, 2009.

Eidos Interactive was going through a number of ups and downs, acquisitions and mergers previous to this sale of the company to Square Enix.

For Square Enix the acquisition of Eidos Interactive is a step in globalizing the company’s footprint: Eidos name will be changed into Square Enix Europe, so effectively Eidos is turned into Square Enix’ Europe operations.

Eidos Interactive

Eidos was founded in 1990 by Stephen Bernard Streater (graduated in Mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge) developing Full Motion Video (FMV) compression software for RISC Computers, such as the Acorn RISC Computer. Stephen B Streater left and sold Eidos, and founded Forbidden Technologies, while Eidos turned to game software.

Around 2004/2005, Eidos suffered substantial losses and cash reserves were running low. Eidos had difficulties competing with Electronic Arts, Activision and other Western game makers. Eidos received acquisition offers from Elevation Partners, and the British Game maker SCi Entertainment, and on May 16, 2005, Eidos was sold to SCi Entertainment.

In 2008, SCi Entertainment reported losses, and SCi Entertainment changed its name back to Eidos plc.

  • Revenues: £179.1 million (approx. US$ 270 million) (2006)
  • Net income: £8.1 million (approx. US$ 12 million) (2006)
  • Employees: 600

Eidos was best known for the games:

  • Tomb Raider
  • Hitman
  • Deus Ex
  • Legacy of Kain
  • Thief

Square Enix

Square Enix was created on April 1, 2003 from the merger of the Japanese game companies:

  • Enix (founded on September 22, 1975) and
  • Square (founded on September, 1986).

On October 1, 2008 the Square Enix Group of companies was converted into a holding company structure, Square Enix Holdings. Square Enix Holdings includes the group companies:

  • Square Enix Group
  • Taito Group
  • Square Enix Europe
  • Eidos Group
  • Shinra Technologies

Square Enix is best known for it role playing games including the series:

  • Final Fantasy
  • Dragon Quest
  • Kingdom of Hearts

Japan’s games sector

With iconic traditional game companies including Nintendo, SONY, Konami, Sega Sammy, and new game giants including GungHo, LINE, and others, Japanese game companies have been setting the global game agenda for a long time, but do have some difficulties to globalize their Japanese success stories.

Read our report on Japan’s game makers and markets for detailed analysis of financials and trends and market structure.

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