After sitting on the precipice of eSports domination for what seems like an eternity, MLG (Major League Gaming) has sold off its assets to Activision amidst a recent flurry of financial troubles.
At a special meeting held on December 21st, the company's board of directors voted to approve a sale to Activision Blizzard amounting to $46 million for basically all of its assets. There are some interesting details included here, such as the deal was not required to meet stockholder approval under Delaware law and only needed the approval of the owners of majority of the outstanding shares. One of those included is Mike Sepso, the co-founder of MLG who now happens to be the senior vice president of eSports at Activision Blizzard.
In addition to that, the CEO of MLG will now be Greg Chisholm who replaces Sundance DiGiovanni as head man. Chisholm was former CFO of MLG, which strikes as a peculiar choice to be the new CEO after the company has undergone many financial troubles recently. This year alone, according to Esportsobserver who brought the news to light, MLG has filed for debt consignment totaling nearly $6 million.
Most of the company's stock holders are not in the position to vote on such a measure and are therefore left out in the cold as to what is going to happen with their investment. Companies are bought and sold all the time with share holders being compensated majority of the time with additional stock or stock splits, etc. In this case, however, if the $46 million is enough to cover MLG's outstanding financial liens, then the remaining stock holders may be at a loss for their investment as a whole.
We'll keep you updated as to what is going to happen as we hear it. In the meantime, you can see a copy of the announcement sent to shareholders below, compliments of Esportsobserver. With Activision now owning MLG in addition to their partnership with ESL and the Call of Duty World League, the future of Esports is in their hands.
Let us know how that makes you feel below.
