Report: Embracer Groups exploring sale of Gearbox Entertainment

thesixthaxis.com:

Reports have emerged that Embracer Group are exploring the sale of Gearbox, as the once omnivorous publisher holding company continues to undergo a large-scale restructuring program after a $2 billion investment deal fell through earlier this year.

As reported by Reuters, Embracer Group are considering all options for Gearbox including a sale, per three people familiar with the matter. Embracer has apparently already received interest from some third parties, and is reportedly working with Goldman Sachs and Aream & Co. to explore a sale. They do caution that these are not advanced talks and could still come to nothing.

Of all Embracer’s many sub-divisions, selling off Gearbox could make the most sense, given the company’s links and ties to other publishers and tangled web of IP and licensing. The Borderlands series and its spin-offs, for example, are published by 2K Games and not by Gearbox themselves, and this series remains the jewel in the company’s crown. They also own the Homeworld franchise, though the third game is in development with private studio Blackbird Interactive, and have been publisher on indie hits like Remnant II, Hyper Light Breaker, Risk of Rain 2 and more.

The Gearbox umbrella has grown in the last few years, opening a Canadian studio in August 2021, acquiring Lost Boys Interactive, who had supported Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands during development, absorbing Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios as they were acquired, and Eidos Shanghai (now Gearbox Studio Shanghai) and for the last 10 months, taking control of Saints Row developer Volition. Oh, and there’s the movie-making venture as well. The company headcount has ballooned from around 600 in April 2021 to 1,300 just a year later.

Embracer Group