Koei, Tecmo Merger Finalized Under $207 Million Deal

Publisher and developer Koei (Dynasty Warriors)'s merger with Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden) to create a holding company will be official beginning in April 2009, in a stock deal valued at 20 billion ($207.7 million). The two companies, which formed a joint committee to develop an integration plan two months ago, intend to merge their operations under a holding company starting April 2009. The holding firm is expected to generate over ¥70 billion ($727 million) in sales and reach a ¥16 billion ($166.2 million) operating profit in the year ending March 2012, according to a report from Reuters. To compare, in the business year ending March 2008 for Koei and December 2007 for Tecmo, the two companies' combined revenue totaled to ¥41.2 billion ($427.9 million), with a combined operating profit of ¥8.5 billion ($88.3 million). Previous to the announced merger, Square Enix revealed its own bid to acquire Tecmo with a buyout valued at $206 million dollars in August. But Tecmo later revealed that it was working on a detailed merger plan with Koei. According to Tecmo, the merger with Koei will give the company a better shot at "boosting corporate value," even though the proposed merger would create a company only a third Square Enix's size.