consolidation
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FCC approves Nexstar’s $6.4 billion acquisition of Tribune Media
The long, drawn out saga over Tribune Media Company's fate could soon come to an end. Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale of Tribune to Nexstar Media Group. The $6.4 billion deal will create the nation's largest local TV broadcaster and local media company, Nexstar said previously.
Toshiba, Fujitsu and Vaio could merge their PC divisions
The PC business as we know it is dying, and whenever an industry reaches this point in its life, it has to team up with the other survivors to avoid oblivion. To that end, Nikkei Asian Review believes that Toshiba, Fujitsu and Vaio, Sony's spun out computing division, are considering merging their PC divisions together. The move would create a desktop, laptop and tablet-manufacturing supergroup that controlled more than 30 percent of Japan's market -- making it bigger than Lenovo, the current local champion. The paper believes that Vaio would be the name that survives, absorbing its rivals into its existing operations.
Report: Games industry saw $12.5 billion in acquisitions last year
Over $12.5 billion in game company acquisitions were announced in the last year, London-based game advisory firm Digi-Capital reports. The firm's second quarter review, as highlighted by GamesBeat, showed $4.6 billion of the deals involved mobile gaming companies. That was followed by $4 billion for MMOs, $2.5 billion in game technology and $1 billion for console deals. Digi-Capital managing director Tim Merel pointed to five reasons for the "consolidation crush" that occurred in the past year. For starters, Merel said that companies acquiring mobile developers are "buying into a large, high-growth market," as the firm forecasted that mobile games will generate $33 billion in revenue by 2017, growing from $4 billion in 2011 and $16 billion in 2013. Merel pointed to Zynga's purchase of Backbreaker developer NaturalMotion in January to the tune of $527 million as an example of its second reason for the industry's consolidation, mobile's cannibalization of other media and platforms.
Charter makes a $61 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, could be the first of many
After months of trying to negotiate a deal behind the scenes, Charter Communications is publishing details of its offer to buy Time Warner Cable (which split from Time Warner years ago). Despite a bid that including debt is enough to nab 20 or so Nests, TWC's board responded to the offer by calling it "grossly inadequate." Charter CEO Tom Rutledge is telling anyone who will listen that he can run the company better than its current leadership, and is encouraging shareholders to join him in this viewpoint by making this offer (apparently Charter's third in the last year) public. For customers the upside isn't so clear, as according to J.D. Power Charter is next-to-last in customer satisfaction, staying ahead of only Time Warner Cable -- ouch. Bloomberg mentions that a reason this deal may happen is because billionaire John Malone is backing Charter, and he believes that by joining the companies he can negotiate better deals with the Hollywood studios that provide their content. Another possibility mentioned by Gigaom, is that control over a larger swath of area and customers could help push bandwidth caps and tiered internet pricing. Others like Comcast have also been rumored to be interested in a deal for at least part of Time Warner Cable, but the Charter/TWC combination would make for the country's third-largest provider behind Comcast and DirecTV. This afternoon Charter put on a conference call (slides are available here for EBITDA fans to drool over) to explain its side of the argument, and Time Warner replied it "would not let Charter steal this company." The biggest takeaway here is that these same economics affect others in the industry, so there could be more consolidation of cable/internet giants to come.
Trion answers questions about RIFT's server merges
Next week's RIFT server merge is far from the first time that the game has compressed its servers, but it's still producing no shortage of anxiety and apprehension. The game's community managers took to the forums to answer some of the more pressing questions, starting with the (unwelcome) news that the merged EU servers will wind up without a server flagged for roleplaying. Name changes will be necessary; surnames are possible for the future, but they will not be in place for the merges. Players with more than the maximum number of characters after the merge will only have access to the first 12; players will need to delete existing characters to see the characters in overflow, but they will not be lost. Guild banks do not need to be emptied. Players are also reminded that characters can be transferred before the merger. The one bright point is the fact that the EU servers will have an auction house supporting French, English, and German clients at the same time, allowing all players in the region to interact successfully on the merged worlds.
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 23rd, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a new LTE phone to Boost Mobile, hints of consolidation between Sprint and T-Mobile, and lastly, hints of what we might see at Nokia's upcoming 'innovation reinvented' event. These stories and more await. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of September 23rd, 2013.
Archlord combines Zian and Gracia servers
The world of Chantra is about to get a lot cozier: Archlord will undergo a server consolidation on January 30th that will combine the Gracia and Zian servers. Gracia characters that have been accessed since July 1st, 2012, will be merged without any transfer requests, but players are encouraged to check the eligibility of their character transfers. Prior to the merge (and ensuing epic battles), players will be supported with free cash shop items and will be able to celebrate the combination with "various events." The first Archlord (and guild members) after the consolidation will be rewarded with unique items. [Source: Webzen press release]
Penguin and Random House merge, promise a brave new e-book future
The pressure of digital transitions can lead traditional media companies to circle the wagons -- for better or for worse -- and book publishers certainly aren't immune as e-books take hold. Bertelsmann and Pearson are worried enough to be merging their respective Random House and Penguin publishing wings into a joint venture, not-so-creatively titled Penguin Random House, that they hope will better survive "long-term trends" like the shift away from paper-centric business models. While the two are engaged in the usual corporatespeak of creating "synergies" (read: resource cuts), we're more interested in talk of the union being a springboard for digital efforts: Penguin Random House wants to be "more adventurous" with e-book models like self-publishing. Whether the merger leads to a renaissance for established publishers or just reduced competition when the deal closes in the back half of 2013, we're bracing ourselves for the possibility of a Fifty Shades of Jamie Oliver crossover.
Star Wars: The Old Republic rolls out consolidation of locked servers [Updated]
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been making a move toward fewer servers with higher populations for a while, but tomorrow's maintenance is the final step. After character transfers earlier in the year and the higher-population technology rollout, the server lists are being fully merged as of tomorrow. If you still have characters on a locked server, they will be transferred over to their new home tomorrow whether you like it or not. For those players curious about their new destination or the ever-present naming issue, the team has created an FAQ to answer any obvious questions. The character limit on the destination servers has also been raised to 12. Players who have more than 12 total characters after consolidation will still have access to all of their characters but cannot create any new characters until they delete a few (although all of the characters will be available for play). As with any sort of transfer, there's still some ambiguity about how smoothly everything will run, so players will have to keep their eyes peeled, log in tomorrow, and see what happens after the dust settles. [Update: The team also just released a miniature dev blog that explains how shadows will soon be prettified.]
AllThingsD: HP to fold Imaging and Printing division into Personal Systems Group
HP might have at one point considered ridding itself of its high revenue but low earnings computing division, but AllThingsD has it on good authority that its profitable printing group will now be folded into it. Under the guise of consolidation, the union of both should streamline operations, as both currently expend sizable efforts targeting the same business and home consumers alike. It'll also mean the current Imaging and Printing Group head-honcho, Vyomesh Joshi, is on the outs with the absorbed unit reporting to existing Personal Systems Group head, Todd Bradley. Enough about the kerfuffle, ultimately the shakeup means we're one step closer to owning the webOS printer of our dreams, right?
TERA consolidating servers in Japan [Updated]
While highly anticipated in the West, not all is sunshine and rainbows for TERA overseas. Under assault by bots and bugs, NHN Japan announced that it will be reducing the number of open beta players currently in the game down to 33% by consolidating servers. Players in Japan shell out $38.50 per month to test the game. TERA's been testing in Japan for five months now and has shown promise, with over 48,000 concurrent players logging in at one point. Even though the beta test is shrinking in players, NHN is making tweaks to the game to improve the experience for those who remain. These improvements include doubling the amount of free time for new players and cutting the cooldown time of dungeons in half while increasing the amount of loot dropped. NHN Japan says that the population decrease will help to improve the game's performance as it progresses in testing: "Although the CCU has been decreased from the initial start, it is now more stable than we expected. The server consolidation is to promote better cooperative play." The Korean beta test of TERA conducted a similar server consolidation last May. [Update: While the developers are currently consolidating servers, TERA is no longer in beta testing in Japan. TERA launched several months back as a subscription-based game. We apologize for the confusion.]
Three Rings prepares to connect Puzzle Pirates' oceans
Three Rings is making some interesting changes to its Puzzle Pirates MMO. A new post on the game's official forums outlines what's in store for the new year, and in a nutshell, players will be able to sail between many of the game's oceans (which, in regular MMO-speak, are actually the game's servers). "We've been working on a way to consolidate the game's oceans for quite some time now, and after much deliberation, we determined that the fairest way to go about this is to combine the geographies of two oceans on one server," Three Rings explains. The post hints at massive new explorable areas and also reassures players that their existing properties will be unaffected in spite of the mergers. There's a large FAQ in the thread as well, so head over to the Puzzle Pirates board for all the details.
Orange and T-Mobile UK merger approved by EU, forms 29.5 million customer juggernaut
The European Commission has decided it doesn't mind the crass splicing of pink (okay, magenta) and orange, and has therefore provided its tastefully hued green light to the UK merger of the two mobile operators. Once the transaction is completed this Spring, we'll still be looking at two delineated entities on the consumer market, but there'll be one back office and one consolidated network servicing the two brands. That'll remain the case for at least the next 18 months, when the joint venture between Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom, the respective parent companies of T-Mobile and Orange, will likely complete the process by rebranding itself into one entity. The press announcement is littered with vague references to synergy leveraging and value generation, but those all-important questions as to what the new operator will eventually be called and what colors it will sport are left unanswered. All that really matters for now is that the UK has a new market share leader and the mobile space became that little bit less competitive. [Thanks, Mitchel]
Dyack predicts more publisher consolidation
Publishers have been disappearing faster than Ludwig's snickerdoodles at Joystiq's Mid-Autumn Tea Social lately, both through bankruptcy or (for the lucky ones) being purchased. Designer and industry soothsayer Denis Dyack told Gaming Union he expects that to continue, comparing the shift to that of Hollywood which went from hundreds of individual studios to the six major houses we know today. Dyack expects the role of publishers to change as well, though he's less specific on exactly what that means. Boy, one console and now fewer publishers? Sounds like Denis has been listening to too much They Might Be Giants.
More server consolidations in WAR?
Less than three weeks after launching Land of the Dead, the Warhammer Online Herald is reporting another round of free transfers from several source servers to a few destination servers. Members of Ironfist, Vortex, Monolith, Magnus, and Skull Throne have been urged to transfer to more populated servers. Players on all servers are being rewarded with an extra 20% experience and renown bonus to mark the occasion.The latest WAR Grab Bag mentioned server merges specifically: "...we are expecting to resolve our long term population issues on our lower population servers and see high populations regularly as part and parcel of server merges that are currently in discussion." Mythic consolidated (read: merged) 40 low population servers back in early March 2009, leaving the game with 14 servers in North America. Merging these new servers will eventually leave WAR with 9 active servers. Darren (aka The Common Sense Gamer) is wondering what a lot of us are wondering right now: Is Mythic still correcting for an overzealous server launch strategy or is the game's population no longer holding steady at 300,000?
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LXI: Acer chief says Japanese PC companies "the weakest today"
We're pretty sure we've heard Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci say PC industry consolidation resulting in fewer players and lower component prices would be a good thing before, but he dressed it with a side of smackdown today: speaking to the New York Times, he said that Toshiba and Sony's PC businesses would be the first targets, since "the Japanese for sure are the weakest today." Ouch. It's especially harsh since Sony just broke down and released its first netbook this morning after claiming that the low-cost machines were a downward spiral, but that wasn't enough blood for Gianfranco: he also said that ASUS and Lenovo need to "think long and hard" about remaining independent companies. Yow -- sounds like someone's planning to do a little shopping, don't you think?
JVC merging US business lines
Nary a day goes by without belt-tightening news, and now JVC is finding ways to cinch things up. Fresh off its strong CES rollout that covered the bases with LCD TVs, Blu-ray players, camcorders and HTIBs, JVC Americas is undergoing some restructuring. In all, four JVC companies are being merged in the US -- the JVC Company we're most familiar with that sells consumer A/V gear, JVC Mobile (car products), JVC Professional and JVC Service and Engineering. That's a lot of streamlining, and sadly, we don't expect any resulting "redundancies" will be long for trimming once the official April 1 merge date hits.
Will TV makers consolidate during downturn?
It's a question that's always asked during downturns, but we actually believe there's a remote possibility of it happening this go 'round. A recent Wall Street Journal report suggests that industry experts anticipate only the top-tier brands -- Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp, LG and Toshiba, for example -- making it through the current economic slowdown without consolidation. They also suggest that everyone else could be "forced to either pull out of the TV business or join forces with a surviving entity." Quite frankly, we feel that's probably a bit extreme, as we can't imagine names like Insignia and VIZIO vanishing (or crazier still, merging) when it's price that matters most. Still, we can appreciate that the big firms could likely outlast the others in terms of coping with weak sales, but we still refuse to believe that Westingneer is even close to becoming a reality.
AT&T dreams of single smartphone OS, will probably keep dreaming
Okay, so we fully understand that it would make life a lot easier on AT&T if every smartphone on its network used the same operating system, but we're not so sure we like the idea of losing the whole "ability to choose." Speaking at the Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco, AT&T's Roger Smith (director of next generation services, data product realization at AT&T) reportedly stated that he wanted to "standardize on a single operating system for AT&T-branded smartphones as part of a dramatic consolidation of its mobile platforms over the next few years." Given the location of the speech, it's no shock that Symbian was named "a very credible and likely candidate" to be that system, and for those questioning the iPhone, he was quick to point out that said mobile is simply a third-party device tapping into AT&T's technologies. Honestly, we're not sure how to take this seriously -- is he really saying he's willing to alienate RIM and / or Microsoft in order to only sell Symbian-based handsets? Doubtful.Update: An AT&T spokesman pinged up with an important followup to this -- click on to read the whole thing.
