Bandai Namco plans D3 buyout

Bandai Namco Games declared its intentions today to stage a buyout of D3, the parent company of Simple Series publisher D3 Publisher.

The company aims to turn D3 into a full subsidiary. Towards this end, it says that it has already reached an agreement with multiple D3 share holders, including majority shareholder Fields, to acquire some 70% of currently issued D3 shares. It hopes to acquire the full 100% of shares, with standard share price valued at 62,000 yen.

As reason for the acquisition plans, a Bandai Namco release cited the need, in a harsh environment, to work together as one group company in order to strengthen global developments and expand business.

Getting a bit more specific, the Bandai Namco release mentioned the following as possible results of a buyout:

• Cooperation on overseas content expansion using such products as D3's BEN10 series.
• Increasing the value of D3's content by tying it in with Bandai Namco Groups' other "strategic business units" (the release mentions five such units: toys and hobbies, amusement facilities, game content, network, and video/music content).
• Use of Bandai Namco Games content with D3's casual games series
• Use of D3's content with Bandai Namco's "multi-content" development system (this presumably refers to Bandai Namco's ability to produce toys, anime and other products outside of games).
• For North American content development, improvement of development efficiency through shared use of technology (game engines, etc.)
• Cooperative development and promotions for mobile content
• Offering of new types of play and new content by using the combined knowhow of Bandai Namco Games and D3