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Witcher Publisher And Optimus S.A. Strike A Deal
CD Projekt, the Polish publisher behind The Witcher, announced today that they have struck a deal with Optimus S.A., officially making them a publically listed company and promising increased cashflow to aid them on future projects.
“This transaction represents the full realization of the strategic goals that CD Projekt’s owners set for themselves. Above all, we will become a publicly listed company, which denotes access to capital. That in turn will spur further company growth. The immediate financing we obtained through the deal will allow us to pursue our operational goals in troubled times. We have gained all this while retaining control of the business, which was essential to us. The added spice of the contract is that we are merging with a corporation that, like CD Projekt, has been at the center of the Polish computer market throughout its history,” said CDP Investment stockholder Adam Kiciński.
Optimus S.A. has indeed played a large role in the Polish computer market, being a leader in PC assembly and IT solutions for companies nationwide. Earlier this month, CD Projekt and Optimus signed a letter of intent detailing the now-realized acquisition, promising Optimus would attain 100 percent of capital stock in CDP Investment, and CDP Investment stockholders would in turn become shareholders in Optimus. The agreement means that Optimus is now the indirect owner of CDP Group, and former stockholders in CD Projekt are owners of 50 percent of the shares in Optimus S.A. The deal is valued at $23 million.
This is good news for the publisher. We first learned of CD Projekt’s financial toils back in December of 2008, when in-house developer Projekt Red confirmed that The Witcher would be ported to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf. The console version was put on hold indefinitely, however, in early 2009 because of worries that they wouldn’t meet the target ship date and that the quality wouldn’t be on par with the PC version.
But Projekt Red appears to be back on track, recently having announced The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Senior Producer of CD Projekt Red Tom Gop confirmed that 50+ people remain from the original Witcher development group after cuts to the department associated with freezing The White Wolf, and that they are hard at work on the sequel.
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