Midway Acquires Developer Pitbull Syndicate

Chicago-headquartered publisher and developer Midway Games has announced that it has acquired Newcastle, UK-based Pitbull Syndicate in a "primarily stock transaction" for 199,385 Midway shares, currently valued at around $3.1 million at today's Midway share value of $15.63. The developer is particularly important to Midway since the studio is currently developing Midway's current-gen racing title L.A. Rush, the latest in the arcade-originating Rush franchise originally developed in-house at Midway. Pitbull is also working on additional next generation projects, according to the company, and the newly acquired studio will be renamed Midway Studios - Newcastle. Pitbull Syndicate itself was established in December 1996 by a small group of programmers and artists who have specialized in racing games, and which previous created four games in the Test Drive series for Infogrames/ Atari, which has sold over 5.5 million copies as a franchise. Midway's President and Chief Executive Officer, David F. Zucker, commented, "We have been collaborating with Pitbull on the upcoming reinvention of our Rush franchise, L.A. Rush, which we anticipate will be launching in October. This close-knit team of highly talented developers brings to Midway a successful track record, specifically the Test Drive series, of which three titles have sold over one million units."