Asmodee is going to buy F2Z

They're in exclusive negotiations with F2Z right now, that means it's pretty much a done deal.

www.tabletopgamingnews.com/asmodee-negot...e-f2z-entertainment/

I wrote this for a fake news site back in 1999:

TIME-WARNER ACCIDENTALLY BUYS COMPANY IT ALREADY OWNS

New York, NY (DPI) - In an embarrassing gaffe that has all of Wall Street doubled over with laughter, media giant Time-Warner revealed today that ServoTech, a promising up-and-coming cell phone company recently purchased by the conglomerate for $14 million, was actually a company they already owned.

"Yeah," said Time-Warner spokesman Nicholas Waterman, "it turns out Servotech is a division of e-Novation, which is owned by Gamma Technologies, which is the research arm of...oh hell, you get the idea. And it turns out we own them all. Talk about feeling like a bunch of idiots."

Added Waterman: "Duh."

Time-Warner nabbed the company in a savage bidding war against AT&T, when the latter suddenly backed out, reportedly because they thought maybe THEY owned it. "We had a guy trying to make sense out of the corporate flowchart," an unnamed AT&T source revealed, "because someone thought they'd seen a memo directed to ServoTech. Turned out the memo was to ServeTech. Or ServiceTech or eServe or something like that."

The CEO of ServoTech, 19-year old Matt Feznik, gave a press conference in reaction to the news. "I hope we don't have to give that money back," he stated, "because it's already gone to, umm, research and stuff. Those phones or web sites or whatever it is we make require a lot of cash." He then cut short the conference and sped off in his brand new Ferrari to go play Quake III with his co-workers.

Plaid Hat and Z-Man has now officially become a Poker Chip. Passed around the table in rapid succession.

. You might not hear about F2Z, directly, a lot, but you know of their brands: Plaid Hat Games, Z-Man Games, and Filosofia. The deal is looking to be closed in the next several months. Doing so will bring games like Pandemic and Dead of Winter under the Asmodee umbrella.

I didn't even know that Plaid Hat and Z-man were under the same umbrella. Is this going to prevent Plaid Hat from releasing games that are innovative, weird, and tragically flawed in the future?

F2Z bought Plaid Hat a little less than a year ago.

So, uh, who DOESNT Asmodee own then since that's a shorter list?

Games Workshop.

Biggest independents not owned by Asmodee:

Cool Mini Or Not
IELLO
Steve Jackson
Cryptozoic

Of these I would rank Steve Jackson as the most likely to get taken over, given the Munchkin cash cow. IELLO is also a target with King of Tokyo.

I think PAIZO might also be an interesting play for them, to get a foothold in the RPG market (beyond FFGs offerings).

AEG is an Asmdee company?

So, let's see....big company buys a bunch of smaller design houses/pubs. Has economy of scale. Limits distribution to get more margins.

Prices go up.

WTF