ArcadeTown

[DFG]

Seeing a new company name on the ArcadeTown site. What's up Fisher? :)

[Nexic]

Well Brian was abducted by aliens and at gun point they forced him to sign...

I've said too much already... *takes cyanide pill*

[terin]

*Starts burning documents*

Dang, they're on to us! :)

I'll let Brian relay the story if he is up to it. I think it is good news, but meh- he da boss.

-Joe

[James C. Smith]

I went to the "Arcadetown Closing Celebration." It turned out they weren’t closing down Arcadetown but were just celebrating the closing of the deal.

[alfie]

Whats it all about then? Is Demand Entertainment Inc a company who as bought/bought into Arcade Town?

[Spaiz]

Whats it all about then? Is Demand Entertainment Inc a company who as bought/bought into Arcade Town?
Yeah, same question, can't understand the base.

[arcadetown]

We sold all our assets including Arcadetown to Demand Media. Demand is run by the old management team of Intermix who was known for Myspace, which sold to Fox last year. So they are known for making great things happen. Demand recently purchased a few companies including us and the old assets of Intermix excluding Myspace. So they have great casual games expertise including Grab.com, GameRival.com, the Gold Miner series, Belle's Beauty Boutique, and others.

What does this mean? Our entire team has joined their team and we can now bring developers even more distribution than before. Plus with our gaming expertise joining their's we hope to take our game (so to speak) to a whole new level!

We were doing simply incredible so why sell? It was the right time as have been at this for years on our own and the better we did the more stress there seemed to be. Why Demand? We had been approached by many but refused to trade a sure thing for risk. They are a beneficial partner, could afford us, had a great story to tell, and they are someone we and our partners can trust.

[alfie]

Great news Brian. Smart move doing the right deal at the right time and even smarter when it feels right for you, well done.

[DFG]

I raise my virtual glass to you Brian, what a great success story you and ArcadeTown have been! Congrats on the sale!

[lakibuk]

Sorry for my naive questions (i am just a hobbyist programmer who doesn't know much about business):
What's so great about selling one's company?
- You are an employee working for someone else.
- The new owner takes most of the money. You receive a wage. (Arcadetown makes a lot of money,right?)

[jcottier]

> What's so great about selling one's company?

What about: You make plenty of money.
Isn't that a good reason?

JC

[electronicStar]

We sold all our assets including Arcadetown to Demand Media. Demand is run by the old management team of Intermix who was known for Myspace, which sold to Fox last year. So they are known for making great things happen. Demand recently purchased a few companies including us and the old assets of Intermix excluding Myspace. So they have great casual games expertise including Grab.com, GameRival.com, the Gold Miner series, Belle's Beauty Boutique, and others.

I'm not 100% sure this is a good thing for the company name or for the industry in general, but congratulations nevertheless for taking advantage of the market and getting out of it as a winner!


Sorry for my naive questions (i am just a hobbyist programmer who doesn't know much about business):
What's so great about selling one's company?
- You are an employee working for someone else.
- The new owner takes most of the money. You receive a wage. (Arcadetown makes a lot of money,right?)
What about being a millionaire and working mostly for the pleasure (with an additional comfortable salary)?

[Escapee]

and 15+ days of vacation ..

[yanuart]

Hey, oh my.. it's been awhile since my last visit to this forum and look what happened :D
Congrats and best of luck to Brian and Arcadetown !

[arcadetown]

Selling and finding a good partner is a very complex process. It must make sense financially, business, personality, and timing wise for both parties. There are all sorts of reasons one would sell, ours was to cash out some risk so can sleep better while still being able to see some upside. Stability becomes attractive after being on the bleeding edge for many years.

It's actually quite fascinating and far more complicated than ever envisioned. We danced with many potential suitors before finding the appropriate one. It's seriously a lot like getting married! Financial wise the most common options are selling for cash, equity, earn-outs, or combination thereof. Cash is zero risk while others have risk but allow you to see upside. Typically equity and earn-outs are mutually exclusive as company X's owners/investors are willing to dilute their equity whereas company Y's will lean towards earn-outs. To get a flavor I suggest researching those and publicly stated transactions such as Zylom (http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/releases/2006/real_zylom.html) and Gamehouse (http://www.realnetworks.com/company/press/releases/2004/gamehouse.html).

Ask me it's great for the industry as combined we provide a larger outlet where our developer partners get more access plus we bring expertise that helps improve them and vice versa.

Also thanks everyone for helping make us great, truely!