Devolver Digital wants to undo its stock-market experiment. The publisher behind a decade of weird, sharp indie games - and the E3-season showcases that gleefully take the mickey out of the industry - has told shareholders it plans to go private again, walking back the listing on London's AIM market that made it a public company in the first place.
The pitch went to shareholders on August 6, with a general meeting to vote on it scheduled for September 8. If it passes, Devolver aims to be delisted from AIM by September 16.
The numbers behind the retreat
They're not pretty. Devolver was valued at around $950 million when it went public. Its market cap now sits near $46.6 million - a drop of roughly 96% - and the share price slid to about 7.15p on the news. The company reckons going private saves it around $1.6 million a year and argues the current share price doesn't reflect what the business is actually worth. As a sweetener, there's a proposed return of up to $5 million in cash to qualifying shareholders via a tender offer.
What it means
Read plainly, this is a company deciding the public markets cost more than they're worth. A few underperforming releases and a crowded market left the share price stranded, and running a listed company carries overheads a smaller publisher can do without. Going private hands control back to insiders and takes the quarterly share-price scrutiny off the table.
It follows EA's far larger buyout earlier this month, so the direction of travel is hard to miss: after years of studios chasing public money, a chunk of the industry is now trying to get back out of the spotlight. Whether a leaner, private Devolver puts out better games is the only question that'll matter to players - and that's one the balance sheet can't answer.
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