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Phantom Gets Insider Bonus, Ex-Xbox Bigshot
Thanks to loonyboi for pointing to a HeraldTribune.com article revealing new controversy and a surprising senior appointment for Phantom 'PC game console' makers Infinium. The article reveals: "Infinium Labs Inc. dished out a stealthy stock dividend to insiders as soon as it became a publicly traded company, and without bothering to tell the stock-trading public through traditional channels." Infinium executives "declined... to be interviewed about the four-for-one dividend", but it's also noted, by way of an SEC filing, that "...Infinium has hired Kevin Bachus, who helped Microsoft develop its XBox gaming system... Bachus, with nearly 20 years of experience in the game development industry, has assumed the role of president and chief operating officer."
I don't understand why this stock split news is controversial or important. Their stock split would not change the worth of a shareholder's equity.. it would just increase the number of shares out there, with each share being worth less, right? Why is it such a big deal that the Phantom guys didn't do a press release? Would that affect anyone economically?
Is it just me that perceives that MS Xbox operations is constantly bleeding executives? It reminds me of Sega of America during the 90's Does anyone of you know how many former Xbox team members are out there? The program is not that old to be yielding so many 'Veterans'. I wouldn't be surprised if Ken Lobb turned out working on another 'Phantom' company soon.
I don't think it's gaining any credibility. Picking up a major player in the industry doesn't mean much. 3D Realms has had sevral of them, and yet no Duke Nukem Forever. For that matter, once upon a time, John Romero could have been considered a major player. Didn't make Daikata any less bad.
Every time I see something that looks legitimate from Infinium, I go back to their games list: Misspelled titles and developers, games ascribed to the wrong developer, games listed several times for multiple developers (or for the same developer spelled several times), developers that have been out of business for months or years, games that were cancelled before release in the mid-90's, none of the flagship titles (more on these in a second, and not a single game released after the year 2001. For that matter, at least a third of the games on the list date between 1989 and 1995. And as for the flagship titles, they were touted to include UT2k3, Starcraft: Ghost, and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. However, the makers of all three deny that they were developing for the platform, and didn't appear on the game list when it was finally released (and then retracted).
And if none of that sheds doubt on the entire operation, take a look at this. A lot of companies have done a lot of weird stuff, but I've never seen one buy itself out and then brag about acquiring their own flagship product from themselves.