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From TGN:

Trading in shares of Rackham stock was suspended yesterday pending an announcement coming from the company on Monday. No word on what that announcement will be.

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/?p=9676

And I was just getting into AT-43 as well!

I guess I'll never get that Red Blok army finished now!

Soooo... In what circumstances stock trading can be suspended? It's the end of the world with seas of boiling blood or just minor, local phenomenon with a few lakes of hot tomato sauce?

Doing a bit more research (well, reading the comments on TGN , anyway ) it may not be the end of the world... or it may be. It all depends. I guess I'll have to wait with baited breath.

Rackham's shares had been tanking recently, but underlying business (as indicated by difficulty distributors had in getting hold of English language stock of new stuff) seemed to be doing OK.

I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Well, with Rackham doing "something" and GW suffering like "something"...I gues Privateer Press just won the whole cake......

Maybe someone will buy out Rackham, scrap the whole pre-painted s**t, and release AT-43 and CR in the only proper form. Unpainted that is...
Nah, won't happen...

Posted By His Master's Voice on 09/04/2007 9:48 AM
Maybe someone will buy out Rackham, scrap the whole pre-painted s**t, and release AT-43 and CR in the only proper form. Unpainted that is...
Nah, won't happen...

If Rackham was made private, the opposite would be more like: focus entirely on the prepainteds and get 'em into the toy stores ASAP, while selling off the metals part of the biz (layoffs to follow). That , along with being forced to take on some ridiculous amount of non-original debt from the private equity firm (ensuring that they have to sell off the 'unprofitable' parts of their business), they get it into the black, and sell for a profit.

That assumes private equity, however. If someone like Hasbro bought it, all bets are off.

By the way: there's been endless speculation by people since GW went public that one of the big guns would come out and buy the company, but wouldn't it be interesting if a toy company bought a smaller fish like Rackham? Less baggage, already into the Pre-painted plastics, not tied to any licensing agreements, and would have a similar effect on the purchasers portfolio without paying quite as much for it. Just an idle thought...  

Wizkids did a similar thing in 2002.

As soon as their Mechwarrior line reached full zenith, they promptly sold out to Topps trading card company.

Recently, Topps was bought by Disney.

Wizkids also makes Pirates of the spanish main, one of their more popular gaming products which rode the coat tails to the disney pirate movie franchise.

It looks like Disney wanted a part of that action.

In fact, Wizkids announced that they are making a "Pirates of the Caribbean" game which is compatible to their already existing "Pirates of the (insert name of subset here)" line. Something which Wizkids wished they could have done in the past but because of licensing, wasnt possible.

Too bad the Pirates CSG has already jumped the shark....

When you see things like this happening, and within the last six months, suddenly buyouts of gaming companies by not only big fish, but by enourmous whales like Disney, isnt so far out of perspective.

A suspension of trading is only a significant event as far as investors are concerned. For customers it rarely means much. A suspension is usually done in circumstances such as a major private investment at below market value or a splitting of the shares. An event that is meant to directly affect company stock itself regardless of it's worth.

Can't we get Duncan Idaho to chime in?

Isn't he on their Board of Directors?

He's a mentat ghola of the Zensunni tradition.

Yep, Frank Herbert was a power gamer.

Where is the errata on that frakking codex?!?

I don't think he has enough CHOAM stock to make his comments worthwhile.

Posted By malfred on 09/04/2007 2:43 PM
He's a mentat ghola of the Zensunni tradition.

Yep, Frank Herbert was a power gamer.

It is by prepaints alone that sets AT-43 in motion.

It is by hatred of Duncan that Alpharius acquires baiting.

The thread acquires flaming.

The Mods create a closing.

It is by prepaints alone that sets AT-43 in motion.

I didn't think it was possible to shoot crunchberries out your nose, but I just done it.

Posted By Hellfury on 09/04/2007 5:18 PM

Posted By malfred on 09/04/2007 2:43 PM
He's a mentat ghola of the Zensunni tradition.

Yep, Frank Herbert was a power gamer.

It is by prepaints alone that sets AT-43 in motion.

It is by hatred of Duncan that Alpharius acquires baiting.

The thread acquires flaming.

The Mods create a closing.

It is by prepaints alone that sets AT-43 in motion.

While I obviously forgot my "sarcasm ahead" sign (i.e., SMILEY), I was serious.

Duncan often posts "ex cathedra", so I was hoping for another Papal Bull, as it were...

Actually one can´t say much just from the suspending. A lo can happen, Rackham can tank, Rackham can buy back all shares. Everything can happen..... So without further in depth info.... nothing real can be said.

Yeah. Could be good, could be bad from a business angle. My guess is that it is something to do with the recent link up with FFG, but that is totally a guess.

Posted By Duncan_Idaho on 09/05/2007 2:25 AM
Actually one can´t say much just from the suspending. A lo can happen, Rackham can tank, Rackham can buy back all shares. Everything can happen..... So without further in depth info.... nothing real can be said.

The known knowns are unknown?

Yeah. I guess this is one of those "Unknown unknowns" we wuz warned about!

The only 'official' thing we've seen on the 'official Rackham forums' has been:

*************************************************************

Martin TERRIER
Dragon Rouge



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 458

Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 6:29 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hardly thought we would be blamed some day for not locking a topic fast enough You are right however; this forum's purpose is not to address or discuss Rackham's financial life.
As stated in the source of this news, Rackham will issue a news release towards financial partners on this topic.

***************************************************************

So, that's that, for now...

Ripped from Warhammer.org:
>Well it looks like the Rackham representatives at Gencon were just covering up something

Taken from TGN http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/?p=9698

Quote:
"It appears that Rackham have placed themselves under legal protection (PDF link) due to slow European sales for AT-43. Due to continued issues with our comment system comments on this topic are closed. Sorry for the inconvenience. If anyone has a better translation of the PDF please contact us. Also, if anyone knows if this is similar to bankruptcy protection or not can they also contact us.

Translated badly by Google and the editor
Quote:

The Directorate-General of Rackham SA decided to place the company under the protection of Commercial court of Bobigny within the framework of the law of safeguard. Let us inform that one period of 6 months observation was open on August 27, 2007. This voluntary step was justified by an analysis of the general evolution of the company, and in particular of its treasury over the last months, marked by the following points:

1. The Directorate-General of Rackam SA anticipated the market trends of the plays of strategy with figurines towards the “loan to be played” and made, as of the beginning of 2005, the choice of the figurines in figure gone up and painted. This new strategic orientation, announced at the time of the general assembly of the shareholders of September 2006, allows Rackham today to be the precursor on the market. The choice of this new industrial model required heavy investments which started to bear their fruits with the launching of the play of science fiction AT-43 in November 2006. The new edition of Confrontation, the Age of Rag’ Narok, is scheduled for November 2007.


2. If the starting of AT-43 in the United States is very satisfactory, on line with the objectives - US sales turnover is in growth of more than 10% per month and the position of the company on this priority geographical area is reinforced for the months to come by a contract from exclusive distribution with a master distributor, Fantasy Games Flight - its establishment in Europe is done more slowly than envisaged.

Thus, the growth of the sales turnover AT-43 does not compensate for, for the moment, erosion sales turnover Confrontation in its current version (metal figurines), at the end of the sound cycle life. The total sales turnover realized by Rackham SA passed from 400 K€ by month in 2005-2006 to 300 K€ over the same period since 1 year. 3. In this context, Management has set up, for several months, a reorganization which fact of feeling its first effects. It must nevertheless be continued in order to allow company to ensure its perenniality and to profit fully from the renewal of its range from products. It will be thing made within the framework of the phase of observation which allows the company to freeze the whole of its exigible liability.

The accounts of the company Rackham SA are in the course of review by the police chief with accounts. A complementary official statement will be available on the detail of the accounts and of exigible liability after their certification in the next weeks. Trustful in the development prospects of the company Rackham SA, we remain with your provision for any information additional by telephone to + 33.1.55.86 .89.20 or by email with info@rackham.fr.

Directorate-General of Rackham"


Always bad to see a company struggling<

Looks like Rackham have put themselves into the French equivalent of what in the UK is Administration.

www.rackham.fr/pdf_corporate/Sauvegarde.pdf

There is more about it on TGN: www.tabletopgamingnews.com

It sounds like they ran into cashflow problems with the tale off of C3 sales happening faster than they had budgeted for before they could replace it with C4 stuff.

If this *is* the case then I am amazed at their management's naivity.  Did they really expect sales of C3 to continue at old levels when they were telling all and sundry that the game was finished?  If they did they have only themselves to blame.

By the sounds of the translation it looks like by putting themselves into Administration they can hold off their creditors for long enough to try and get C4 underway and their distribution issues with AT-43 fixed.

They are truly gambling the company on the success of PPP then!

Interesting that AT43 should do much better in the US than in Europe.

Man that sucks! I hope they pull through, I was really starting to dig  AT-43.

My M.Ind UNA force was really starting to mow fools.

So...AT-43 should be in discount bins soon, then? /macabre humor

Allegedly their distributors in Germany have been selling it at 95% off... If only I could have got hold of some of that...!

I've played AT-43 and I was impressed how simple, yet powerful the game system was. The first introduction scenarios are just here to introduce rules, but activation order and "friendly fire" really allow cunning tactics. I hope it will catch locally as I don't have time to paint, but I fear that AT-43's most prominent quality is a double-edged sword - PREPAINTED.

I won't start a quarrel with pros and cons of prepainted. But truth is, prepainted means you can join anytime - the latter the better even, since you have more and more releases available. That's the real issue with prepainted games. Players are driven to a wait and see approach. Finally it might kill the editor despite the quality of its game!

Perhaps Rackham could fight this bad habit while releasing limited editions, as it could force would-be players to make a move. Not really fair on the long run, but if the purpose is to save the company from bancrupcy, then hell yes!

Current rumor is that there is a buy out in the wings, maybe FFG?

I can see how a distributor might want to get into AT-43 for the US market.

Not so sure that said suitor would keep the "Confrontation Brand", as currently constituted, on their production schedule.

Maybe "Confrontation" will be cast adrift? Bought my someone else? Die?

Who knows what will happen? (Though I hope that it somehow gets to return to its skirmish roots...)

(Though I hope that it somehow gets to return to its skirmish roots...)

In my ideal version, they'd kill CAOR, kill C3.5 (massive sales loss after C3.5 - coincidence? I think not), and just return back to normal, good, and very well-selling C3. I actually will buy CAOR, but just because I always wanted a mass battle game from them. I'd prefer Rag'Narok 2 by a longshot if I could get it.

95% is alittle bit high.... old lines soon to be replace were sold at 20-40% depending on the shop.