Others Eyed BioWare/Pandemic
Date: Saturday, October 13 @ 10:20:47 UTC
Topic: Off Topic
Elevation Partners, the VC firm that sold BioWare/Pandemic to EA, tells Next-Gen that it was approached by other companies about buying the mega-studio.
"With an asset of this caliber, we were approached over time by a number of largely strategic investors to acquire the business--we never had the company up for sale and never have," said Elevation co-founder and managing director Bret Pearlman in a phone interview. "But all of the offers and approaches we had gotten over time weren't terribly interesting to us.
"When EA put forth the ultimate transaction price, which they never wavered from, we found it interesting and negotiated the transaction."
Pearlman, who's also chairman of BioWare/Pandemic parent VG Holding, wouldn't disclose exactly when EA approached Elevation about the sale, other than it happened in "late summer."
Thursday, EA announced that it would be buying VG Holding for $860 million, a price that some analysts are saying is too high, although hopes are high that the investment will pay off.
Elevation bought BioWare/Pandemic in November 2005 for $300 million.
With the sale of the super-developer, Elevation has a lot of dough, but also a sizable gap in its portfolio as far as videogames are concerned. "Certainly, videogames are an area of our focus, and we will continue to look for different game investment opportunities," Pearlman assured.
News-Source: NEXTGEN
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