Slashdot Mirror
Infogrames Could Help Ubisoft vs. EA
GamesIndustry.biz iz reporting that in a show of European solidarity publisher Infogrames may assist Ubisoft (with the blessings of the French Government) if EA attempts a hostile takeover of the Prince of Persia developer. From the article: "Speaking to news agency Reuters, Bonnell expressed his hope that Ubisoft will remain independent - and rubbished EA's claim that its recent purchase of almost 20 per cent of the firm's stock was merely an investment." Further details on Greg Costikyan's Blog. All this is follow up to year-end shenanigans from EA.
I guess that means the EA cafeteria will be selling "Freedom Fries"
From Penny Arcade to EA:
PA: How do you respond to rumors that you are the fucking devil?
EA: EA does not comment on rumors.
Jordan Mechner has been kidnapped by unknown hostile assailants. A video released by his captors show him working 90 hour weeks at gunpoint in an unidentified office. Police suspect foul play.
Unknown host pong.
All Slashdotters from this day forward should boycott all EA produced software.
What, by not downloading those torrents?
Trolling is a art,
I read this morning here (in french, sorry!) that it was Vivendi Universal Games which was supposed to help Ubisoft....
/. I trust ..." :D
But "In
What can Infogrames do except buy enough of Ubisoft to control it entirely or at least deny EA a controlling stake? Either way, this offer of help doesn't exactly sound like charity.
Is there any place on the web where we can get capitalization information and statistics on foreign companies? Both Infogrames and Ubisoft are public, but neither has stock listed in the Americas and I can't seem to find info like floats, capitalizations, insider/institutional holdings, amount of cash available, etc. EA's a pretty big company sitting on a pretty fat wallet (to the tune of 2.5B in cash).
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
These constant anti-French comments are pathetic. One of your country's oldest allies is hestitant about giving you carte blanche to invade other sovereign states and all of a sudden it's open season on France?
The whole "let's declare war on anything associated with the word 'french' in it" is just pathetic. Really, it just is so petty and ridiculous that it borders on infantile: are freedom fries any tastier than french fries? No? I didn't think so.
Grow up. It's shit like this that has cost you the almost all of international support and goodwill that was apparent in the aftermath of September 11th.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
It's quite simple, Infogames will turn off the lights and EA will be eaten by a GRUE!
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
German law prohibits any foreign entity from gaining a controlling interest in Volkswagen.
Foreign airlines are prohibited from flying between US cities.
Japan makes bogus claims to turn away shipments of US vehicles.
It's not just France.
-mkb
There is no mention anywhere of subsidizing Infogrames. Anyway each and every government on earth "subsidizes" various economic sectors and corporations as they see fit. Direct subsidies are outlawed by various trade pacts and international treaties, but there are many holes in those and many other indirect ways for a government to weight in on an economic sector if it think this is strategically useful.
The US federal government does a lot of this, sometimes directly through subsidies (for example, the agriculture), through pork barrel programs, often of military nature (how many billions have the useless NMD poured into Boeing's and Lockheed's R&D depts ?), often through corporate wellfare, such as the Foreign Sales tax breaks that have been recently outlawed by the WTO, sometimes through tarriffs, for example on steel, which were also outlawed by the WTO, but lasted just enough for the American mills to restructure and survive until the explosion of Asian demand for steel, or the on Canadian lumber. The tax deduction of mortgage interest and the "soft sponsoring" of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac correspond to an effective subsidizing of the residential real-estate sector, etc...
Your US Airways example is bad, because the US has precisely massively, if indirectly, subsidized airlines after 9/11, in a manner that has drawn numerous complaints from Europe.