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Bioware/Pandemic To Go Public
1up.com is reporting that the newly allied studios Bioware and Pandemic will become publicly traded businesses. From the article: "One analyst isn't confident the companies will have any success. How can you possibly fail with U2's Bono at your side? Albeit seemingly unthinkable, Wall Street analyst Michael Pachter isn't optimistic. 'They don't have any chance of success,' he said. 'There's not an appetite to segment the different links in the value chain.' Everyone involved, though, is slightly more cheery about the plan, believing it's an important step for developers to receive proper compensation. 'The talent is not getting anywhere what they should,' says Pandemic president Josh Resnick. 'We're the film industry in the 1920's.'"
As near as I know, the only reason to take a company public is for the owners of that company to make money by selling part or all of their stake in that company.
I can see plenty of downsides. It opens them up to potential takeover by a publisher if they fail to hold onto more then 50% of their shares. It makes them answerable to shareholders, which may curtail creativity in favor of cutting a profit. But how does Bioware / Pandemic benefit as a company from this move?
As a side note, Bioware / Pandemic are not the first pure developer to become publicly traded. Digital Illusions is also a publicly traded company, and have been for some time.
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