Square Enix details Eidos buyout

Square Enix Holdings gathered analysts in Tokyo today for a strategy briefing to formalize its acquisition of English publisher Eidos.

As reported at Impress Watch, Square Enix Holdings CEO Yoichi Wada announced at the briefing that that the company has completed its acquisition of all shares of Eidos at 32 pence per share. As of today (April 22), Eidos is a wholly owned group company of Square Enix Holdings.

In the transltion to a Square Enix group company, Eidos will keep its current COO and CFO. Wada will be the firm's chairman.

The move gives Square Enix Holdings development studios throughout the world, including Crystal Dynamics in North America, IO Interactive in Denmark, and Eidos Montreal in Canada. Key Eidos IPs mentioned by Wada at the briefing include Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex and Kane & Lynch.

It should be noted that Eidos calls Square Enix Holdings, and not publisher Square Enix, its parent company. Eidos is now a sister company to Square Enix and Taito, both Square Enix Holdings group companies.

In terms of scale, Square Enix is by far the largest of the three firms, with 784,000 million yen in sales for the 2008 fiscal year. Taito saw 691,000 million yen, compared to Eidos' 171,000 million. Square Enix also has a much larger work force than its two siblings, at 2,139 people compared to 937 at Taito and 834 at Eidos.

During the briefing, Wada highlighted opportunities for synergy between the two firms, pointing to multi-faceted development opportunities for Eidos properties, scale merits for sales and marketing, shared technology, and the formation of a global business infrastructure.

Initially, some synergy could be seen by Square Enix releasing previously unreleased Eidos games to the Japanese market, Wada said during a Q&A session that followed the brifing. The company is also looking into offer content targeting smart phones and cell phones via Eidos's networks.