Ken Burnside on how screwed Asmodee is

[Thomas Shey]

Worse than that; they took out a loan on the equity of Asmodee. I've seen estimates that it would take six years at Asmodee's average yield to dig out of that hole.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

I'm surprised #Embracer didn't strip #Asmodee of their IP before letting them go. Maybe that wasn't an option. Or maybe they intend to buy it back during the firesale.

(Facebook post quoted because try pasting a functional Facebook link here…good luck)

It's a shame folks continue to silo their expertise behind social media like this.

It amazes me that it's legal to move debt around like that, but I'm not in that field.

Yeah, how the hell does this even work?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

I'm surprised #Embracer didn't strip #Asmodee of their IP before letting them go. Maybe that wasn't an option. Or maybe they intend to buy it back during the firesale.

(Facebook post quoted because try pasting a functional Facebook link here…good luck)

It's a shame folks continue to silo their expertise behind social media like this.

It amazes me that it's legal to move debt around like that, but I'm not in that field.

Yeah, how the hell does this even work?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Yeah, how the hell does this even work?

Asking for a friend.

Its not exactly moving it around. Its more of a robbing Peter to pay Paul situation.

Basically, they took out a loan using Asmodee as collateral, and used that to pay down their own debt. That means they have a much easier time paying off their core debt, and if there's a problem, Asmodee has the bag.

The closest analogy I can give is, you own two houses, one you live in and one your brother lives in. You take a loan on the second to pay off the first, and because of the way business debt can be siloed, if you can't pay off the second, only your brother's house gets sold.

 

[billd91]

It's a shame folks continue to silo their expertise behind social media like this.

Are you shaming Ken for sharing his expertise on Facebook? I’m not sure I’d blame him for the forum here not being able handle a copied link from a FB post.

 

[Fifth Element]

So the original owners sold it for something like what it was worth. Then the new owners managed to sell it for far more, and the next set of owners did the same. Looks like the value of the business has been wildly inflated by people who think "private equity" means "we can print money" and the final set of owners are trying to get blood out of stones.

There were acquisitions between those two events. So the set of assets sold in the two transactions were not the same. That would explain at least part of the difference.

 

[MNblockhead]

If this has a knock on effect to the European branch we over the pond are going to get stuffed. I think Asmodee are the only big name in hobby gaming distribution over here.

Well, you'll still have Ravensburger.

 

[DragonLancer]

Well, you'll still have Ravensburger.

I know Ravensburger do board games but do they also do RPGs, CCGs...etc?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Darker times coming even if nothing catastrophic rolls in from the real world, which is far from a safe bet (as COVID proved). Pretty glad my income doesn't come from gaming any more. Then again, I've felt that way for a decade, so this is just more nails in that career coffin.

 

[nevin]

So the original owners sold it for something like what it was worth. Then the new owners managed to sell it for far more, and the next set of owners did the same. Looks like the value of the business has been wildly inflated by people who think "private equity" means "we can print money" and the final set of owners are trying to get blood out of stones.