About Twenty Companies Including Sega Made a Bid on Atlus, 20 Billion Yen Offered

Giuseppe Nelva August 2, 2013 4:33 AM EST

Looks like things are starting to get heated on the war for the acquisition of Atlus. According to a report by Bloomberg Japan about twenty companies including Sega Sammy Holdings made a bid on the studio behind Persona and Catherine.

Executives familiar with the situation reported that some of the bids reached about 20 billion yen (a little south of 201 million dollars) in the primary auction held earlier this week, and that Atlus’ mother company Index Corporation will choose the candidates before or as early as next week and determine a final buyer by the end of the month. Notably, 20 billion yen are way superior to the initial estimated revenue of 15 billion yen.

In July Index hired the GCA Savvian consulting firm to serve as advisors during the transfer of business ownership. Kazumasa Otsuka-san of the Nijubashi law firm declined to comment or to share details about the actual procedure implemented for the auction. A representative of Sega Sammy Holdings did not offer any comment as well.

Atlus is on sale because Index Corporation filed for Civil Rehabilitation (the Japanese equivalent of a soft Bankruptcy) after finding itself in debt by 24.5 billion yen (almost 246 million dollars). In the meanwhile the studio reassured customers that business will continue as usual and future releases won’t be affected.

There is still no word on the possible results of the auction, so all we can do for now is wait and see, while hoping that Atlus will be acquired by a third party that will guarantee its quality, creativity and independence.

We have reached out to both Atlus and Sega requesting a comment, and we’ll keep you updated if we receive anything relevant.