BAM! buys VIS!
It's not as exciting as all that.
Publisher BAM! Entertainment has announced plans to acquire Scottish developer VIS Entertainment in an all-stock deal. BAM! will also buy SOE Development Ltd, a company set up to fund the development of State of Emergency 2.
BAM! is to issue nine million shares to acquire VIS and SOE, which values the pair at just over $7 million at the current stock prices.
The deal is particularly interesting because VIS actually bought its London development studio from BAM! just over a year ago, only for the studio to be axed due to project delays and cancellations at the end of September 2003. VIS also closed the doors of its Isle of Wight studio for the last time that month.
VIS is obviously currently developing State of Emergency 2, the follow-up to its derided PS2 riot sim (now also on Xbox), which Take-Two published under its Rockstar Games label in the wake of Grand Theft Auto III's tremendous popularity.
