Re: [DL] Selling Out

[richard a ranallo <toadpooka@juno.com>]

On Sat, 6 Jan 2001 21:24:24 -0500 "Jeff Yates" <jyates@poboxes.com>
writes:
> Depends on how much money you need, or how big a chunk of the 
> company you sell.  Yeah, in the end the buyers want more money, no
matter how 
> many shares they pay for.  But in exchange for a large investment
(we're 
> looking at venture capital, in the millions of $, for a large
percentage of 
> our company; and Cybergames "bought" PEG, not just a few shares), the 
> investors want control -- seats on the board of directors, control of
the 
> books, control of the day-to-day activities.  PEG is now just Shane, so
I 
> would imagine Cybergames _has_ to have a lot of control (and I hope
they 
> do it right) just to keep Shane's heart from exploding from the stress!
 

Well, we are dealing with the mainly ego- and vanity-driven Gaming
industry, but in the Real World (TM), it's pretty often that a company is
bought out completely and then left to its own devices unless it mucks
something up bigtime.  Then the parent company steps in and changes
things a little, but not too much, 'cos they don't want to mess with the
things the company was doing right to begin with.
PEG wasn't doing wonderfully at the time of its sale (this I know from
what Shane said to the list, both then and now), so some restructuring
was inevitable.  That, and it would be damned inefficient to have 3
different marketing divisions, et cetera, for 3 owned companies when 1
could do the job.  So I understand if Cybergames got rid of the PEG
"businesspeople."  It'd have been nicer if they re-hired them into
Cybergames' employ, but what's nice isn't always what's profitable.
What doesn't make sense is getting rid of PEG's writers (if, in fact, the
writers left involuntarily).  This means putting all the creative tasks
in the hands of one man, Shane, or farming almost everything out to those
"unprofessional, lazy, filthy freelancers" that Cybergames apparently
hates so much (yeah, I know Steve didn't call them Filthy.  Sue me.  No,
on second thought, don't).  Granted, if anyone in this industry could
write for 5 different product lines all by himself (I'm still holding out
for Judgment Day), it would be Shane (or Lester Smith, but Shane would
write WELL), but that kind of workload just isn't human.  I don't
understand why Cybergames would deliberately put the fate of a game that
they apparently love into the hands of a group of writers that they
apparently don't have much faith in, judging from the comments regarding
delays on behalf of freelancers.

From Whom It May Concern,
Rich A. Ranallo

"A man who has blown all his options can't afford the luxury of changing
his ways.  He has to capitalize on whatever he has left, and he can't
afford to admit--no matter how often he's reminded of it--that every day
of his life takes him farther down a blind alley."
-Hunter S. Thompson, "Hell's Angels"

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