FS: Asmodee. Bargain at 2 Billion euros

Just stumbled upon the huge news that Asmodee is up for sale.

www.boardgamequest.com/asmodee-owners-lo...for-2-billion-euros/

"If Pai Partners is able to secure the 2 Billion euros they are seeking for Asmodee, that would represent an 800 Million profit in only 3 years. Pai Partners has reportedly engaged the bank Goldman Sachs and Natixis Partners to help sell Asmodee."

Yep, I hope Descent 3 survives the corporate kerfuffle.

Dang, Barnes is getting really aggressive with his downsizing. Does the €2b include shipping?

Time to launch the mother of all kickstarters!

That replacement parts policy is paying off.

I only have the vaguest ideas of how finance works at this level, but how many more times can Asmodee be up sold? At some point someone will want to keep it and not flip, right?

Asmodee was built to be sold. That's its sole purpose.

DarthJoJo wrote: I only have the vaguest ideas of how finance works at this level, but how many more times can Asmodee be up sold? At some point someone will want to keep it and not flip, right?

Quoting Y. Varoufakis, it most probably is paid for with money it is expected to make (=a loan from the future), so no: at some point someone will go bankrupt over it not making that promised money.

Nodens wrote: it most probably is paid for with money it is expected to make (=a loan from the future)

So, Anachrony then.

DarthJoJo wrote: I only have the vaguest ideas of how finance works at this level, but how many more times can Asmodee be up sold? At some point someone will want to keep it and not flip, right?

People that purchase these sorts of conglomerates are looking to do one of two things -- 1) sell it at a profit, or 2) bleed it of its value and sell the carcass afterwards. The question becomes when the former starts being less valuable than the latter.

This sort of business is more like Acquire than Catan. You hope to leverage your money for a big payoff, delivered as Capital Gains that are taxed at a lower rate than income, perhaps not at all depending on where you're incorporated.

This sale every three years can be the result of when loans are due. A prior owner may have payments due at three years and needs to get out to make their investors whole. So they sell, take their slice, and pass it on to the next leveraged owner to do the same.

In the event it doesn't sell at a value that is suitable, the owner can bleed it by having it employ fifty people (often on paper only) at $500 per hour, 40 hours per week. That's $200,000 per day worth of value extracted from the company's reserves into an account that is not tied to it. Once the remaining value is small enough you can show a bigger earnings ratio to what remains of the company's value. Someone picks it up for a discounted price (hopefully), jettisons the $500/hour "consultants" and works to get it back on its feet. Or they sell it for parts.

An even worse case is when the owners run up huge loans via the company, pays out their hourly rate from that as well, then declares bankruptcy and evaporates the LLC that purchased the company in the first place, indemnifying themselves from the creditors. All that remains is the office furniture.

I think Asmodee is in category 1, just looking for a cash payday. If what Buonocore said is quoted correctly it appears they may have a buyer already. Remains to be seen if the deal closes.

Mods, could you please move this thread to the Trade Forums?

If the sale went through, it would also represent a major increase in the value of not only Asmodee but also the board game industry as a whole.

That is from here -- comicbook.com/gaming/news/asmodee-sale-p...man-sachs-2-billion/

I'm not exactly sure how that changes the value of the board game industry, as that's generally determined by annual revenue.

The meaning of value is a pretty interesting subject in the post value-based-on-dividends-or-future-dividends era of american capitalism.

I’ll laugh if it’s Activision/Blizzard.

Hasbro.