CD Projekt Red has called an Extraordinary General Meeting later this month and the meeting schedule is suggesting that the developers behind The Witcher series might be preparing to fight off a hostile takeover.
According to the meeting schedule (via NeoGaf/RP.pl), CD Projekt Red is going to be addressing a number of things, including on what right shareholders have. According to a summary on the meeting schedule, there will be three votes during the meeting:
- Vote on whether or not to allow the company to buy back part of its own shares for 250 million PLN ($64 million)
- Vote on whether to merge CD Projekt Brands (fully owned subsidiary that holds trademarks to the Witcher and Cyberpunk games) into the holding company
- Vote on the change of the company's statue.
These votes suggest that CD Projekt Red might be preparing for a hostile takeover or be protecting themselves against one should it come – particularly the first and third vote. If CD Projekt Red bought back its share it would restrict the remaining shareholders, which means that no one could show up and start buying shares until they owned a majority.
It's interesting that CD Projekt Red is making these preparations. Currently, Ubisoft is scrambling to buy their shares back in hopes of fending off a hostile takeover from Vivendi that has been in the works for months. In addition to that, a Chinese chicken meat company is buying up game developers like nobody's business.
The question is, if someone is trying to buy CDPR who is it? If no one is, good on them for protecting themselves and their IP.
