False alarm, CD Projekt Red is not under threat of hostile takeover

Over the last week or so there have been some rumours floating around, surrounding CD Projekt Red and the potential for a hostile takeover. This was obviously cause for concern as CD Projekt Red are often seen as a consumer friendly studio and a takeover could end up jeopardising that. Fortunately, it looks like this may have been a false alarm as the studio has spoken out on the situation.

The rumour seems to have originated from a NeoGAF thread, in which a user translated the schedule of an upcoming shareholders meeting for CDPR. According to the schedule, attendees would be voting on whether to buy back $64 million worth of its own shares, merge brands or put new limits on voting rights for high-volume shareholders.

The changes are in fact supposed to make the company more resistant to an unwelcome takeover, similarly to what is happening between Vivendi and Ubisoft right now. However, in a statement given to wccftech this week, CD Projekt confirmed that this wasn't in reaction to any immediate threat of takeover, the company is just looking to protect itself for the future.

“The proposal is not a reaction to any current events affecting CD Projekt. Rather, it is meant as insurance against future hypothetical scenarios which may never materialise. We wish to safeguard the interests of minority shareholders in a hypothetical case where a major shareholder emerges professing a business and strategic vision which conflicts with ours.”

KitGuru Says: The explanation given seems smart enough. It is good of CD Projekt to have this kind of foresight as after the success of The Witcher 3, there may be some big fish out there looking to buy up the studio. With some protections in place, the company should hopefully be able to fend off something like that. 

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