After months of speculation and legal maneuverings, the sale of Mortal Kombat developer/publisher Midway Games is finally going through. Within the past day, the court overseeing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Midway noted that there were no other bidders for Midway's assets, so the only bidder for the company was Warner Bros.. In addition, all objections to the sale (including Threshold's question over IP rights and Vin Diesel's Tigon Entertainment questions about owed payments) were resolved, clearing the way for Warner Bros. to purchase the company. From the Chicago Tribune article:
Warner Bros. had submitted a $33 million bid to buy "substantially all" the assets of Chicago-based Midway. If there had been other bids, the court would have supervised an auction. But no other parties submitted competing bids, Midway stated in a Tuesday court filing.
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The judge said Wednesday that the objections to the Warner Bros. deal were resolved, clearing the way for the approval.
Midway's creditors and Thomas agreed in early June to give Thomas a $5 million payment. He bought media magnate Sumner Redstone's 87 percent stake in the video-game manufacturer for $100,000 last year and also assumed $70 million in Midway debt originally owed to National Amusements, Redstone's movie theater chain.
Thomas' secured claim in the Midway bankruptcy was $30 million. He also had a $40 million unsecured claim that is eliminated as part of the settlement.
The only real word on the opinion of the MK developers regarding this development is something Ed Boon said on his Twitter to TRMK's Patrick McCarron: "looking forward to the focus being on the games, making them better and less on the noise surrounding us."
With this development in place, it seems Midway's financial future seems to be more secure. We'll report more as we learn it.
To read the Chicago Tribune story in its entirety, click here.