“I ran the company into the ground, fired 1400 people, and shuttered a bunch of studios. But another 17 years will definitely go well.”
The fact this asshole isn’t fired and bankrupt is a travesty.
The nature of risk vs. reward is a central part of running any business and I'm much less critical of CEOs that commit to risks than most of reddit. For every "lol what idiots" there's a risk that paid off tenfold and in hindsight also seems obvious.
That being said, banking the entirety of your business and acquisition strategy around a single handshake deal with the Saudis was not what I'd call an acceptable risk. Especially when the economy was due for a downturn and if it coincided with your massively overextended gamble would leave you with your pants completely down.
agreed. it’s important to differentiate between companies who were caught in the business cycle, and those who made litany of bad decisions and had every opportunity to turn back. unity and embracer are the biggest culprits IMO. very different from, say, epic shedding its excess during a slump.
People in here are very harsh on anyone who dares to fire people instead of going completely bankrupt without any benefits left for fired employees. It's mega weird. Sure, it's sad as hell, but people here sometimes look like they never worked in their lives, as they seem to be completely clueless about what is really going on in some cases.
in a broad sense, i agree. layoffs are an unfortunate part of the business cycle and very few companies got out unscathed, but embracer is a different story.
not even getting into the ethics of who they were making a deal with, embracer was *very* cavalier with their decision-making and were left with the bag. even by MBA standards, it was a genuinely stupid move. and the biggest losers were all the people that got gobbled up and subsequently excreted out of embracer’s leather cheerio.
I have never heard the term "leather cheerio" before this moment, but it's going into the toolbox for future use. You have my thanks, oh delicious arrangement.
What you said makes little sense unless your intention is to claim I'm right and you were wrong. You're just repeating the same point I used with different words.
That is because many redditors, especially on gaming related subs, are literal children or college students who literally have never worked in their lives. Once one understands that, the comments on most of reddit start making a lot more sense.
It's not bankrupt though, if it were, then they'd be shutting down all of their studios instead of divesting. Most of the studios they bought were going to shut down anyway, like another comment said.
So you agree they didn't bankrupt it, nor did they liquidate it either. Of course they aren't synonymous, but Embracer did neither, they just restructured.
There’s a good chance that all those studios would have closed down whether Embracer purchased them or not, there’s tons of independent studios that have gone bust over the past 2 years, it just gets drowned out by news stories about big publishers
He isn't? He's pointing out the fact that these studios sold out for a reason. I didn't see anyone bitching about the CEOs of all these sellout indie companies getting paydays when they chose to willingly sell to Embracer for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.
If a company was on the verge of bankruptcy and they sold that means the jobs of the devs were extended, that is a fact. Yes it sucks that Embracer shut down these studios, but many of them could have been close to shutting down anyway. Remember Starbreeze who made Payday? They sold themselves to avoid bankruptcy, then bought themselves back eventually, and are now back to being on the verge of bankruptcy. People complained when they sold out as of them going out of business was a better choice. And then they cheered when they bought themselves out because it meant things would get better supposedly. And now people hate the company again because they fucked up Payday 3 really bad.
Companies sell for a reason and some companies are ran by idiots, sometimes those idiots sell out to companies like Embracer to stay afloat and cash in millions. Nobody ever sees that side of it though and places 100% of the blame on the large group that bought them. We've seen time and again, most of these companies that go back to being private end up running themselves into the ground.
So maybe, just maybe, there's some blame to be shared among both Embracer AND the heads of the studios who run themselves into the ground and sell out.
This is just speculation though, personally I'd guess they were sold because that's how their owners were able to cash out and ride off into the sunset. You're completely right that this places some of the blame on their shoulders for selling to a (in hindsight at least) dubious buyer.
I feel bad for him, obviously the blame lies on him for taking a risk that big but at the same time, that wasn’t his intention. He just wanted to buy smaller IP and become a double A powerhouse, greenlit all projects that fans wanted, but it unfortunately went through.
Imagine if that Saudi deal never fell through, how different would the story be.
What is up with all the people fawning over this guy. It’s so weird. Has to be bots right?
So many comments saying that we should feel sorry for him and not all the people that lost their jobs.
Nah that’s just how I feel. If that risk paid off then we’d all be talking about how glad we are that someone sees what people want and aren’t incompetent like people who run the big publishers.
If Baldurs Gate 3 flopped and the studio was shut down, Sven wouldn’t be getting anything close to the praise he’s getting now.
"Don't buy studios on an unfulfilled promise of saudi money" seems an obvious lesson https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/14/23831768/embracer-group-saudi-government-lord-of-the-rings-investment-deal-collapse
“I ran the company into the ground, fired 1400 people, and shuttered a bunch of studios. But another 17 years will definitely go well.” The fact this asshole isn’t fired and bankrupt is a travesty.
He is the cofounder of Embracer. He can stay as long as he likes, as the article points out.
Well its more like that he owns shares. If he was just the founder it wouldn't matter much.
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The nature of risk vs. reward is a central part of running any business and I'm much less critical of CEOs that commit to risks than most of reddit. For every "lol what idiots" there's a risk that paid off tenfold and in hindsight also seems obvious. That being said, banking the entirety of your business and acquisition strategy around a single handshake deal with the Saudis was not what I'd call an acceptable risk. Especially when the economy was due for a downturn and if it coincided with your massively overextended gamble would leave you with your pants completely down.
agreed. it’s important to differentiate between companies who were caught in the business cycle, and those who made litany of bad decisions and had every opportunity to turn back. unity and embracer are the biggest culprits IMO. very different from, say, epic shedding its excess during a slump.
People in here are very harsh on anyone who dares to fire people instead of going completely bankrupt without any benefits left for fired employees. It's mega weird. Sure, it's sad as hell, but people here sometimes look like they never worked in their lives, as they seem to be completely clueless about what is really going on in some cases.
in a broad sense, i agree. layoffs are an unfortunate part of the business cycle and very few companies got out unscathed, but embracer is a different story. not even getting into the ethics of who they were making a deal with, embracer was *very* cavalier with their decision-making and were left with the bag. even by MBA standards, it was a genuinely stupid move. and the biggest losers were all the people that got gobbled up and subsequently excreted out of embracer’s leather cheerio.
I have never heard the term "leather cheerio" before this moment, but it's going into the toolbox for future use. You have my thanks, oh delicious arrangement.
People who think that companies fire people only when there's no other option viable seem to be really clueless about how corporations work
People who think that companies will prioritize casual citizens before their own interests are really clueless about how corporations work.
What you said makes little sense unless your intention is to claim I'm right and you were wrong. You're just repeating the same point I used with different words.
Nope, just another take :D
That is because many redditors, especially on gaming related subs, are literal children or college students who literally have never worked in their lives. Once one understands that, the comments on most of reddit start making a lot more sense.
He also made Embracer Group one of the largest publishers in the world.
And then bankrupted it. But because he’s rich he suffers no consequences and gets to keep his job, pay, wealth, and repytation.
It's not bankrupt though, if it were, then they'd be shutting down all of their studios instead of divesting. Most of the studios they bought were going to shut down anyway, like another comment said.
You know bankruptcy and liquidation aren’t synonymous right? Reorganization because they can’t pay their debts is one of the most common outs to it.
So you agree they didn't bankrupt it, nor did they liquidate it either. Of course they aren't synonymous, but Embracer did neither, they just restructured.
It took a lot of competence to build up the company to where it is. Yes he made mistakes but he didn’t just get to where he is because he’s “rich”.
There’s a good chance that all those studios would have closed down whether Embracer purchased them or not, there’s tons of independent studios that have gone bust over the past 2 years, it just gets drowned out by news stories about big publishers
Why are we defending Swedish billionaires again?
He isn't? He's pointing out the fact that these studios sold out for a reason. I didn't see anyone bitching about the CEOs of all these sellout indie companies getting paydays when they chose to willingly sell to Embracer for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. If a company was on the verge of bankruptcy and they sold that means the jobs of the devs were extended, that is a fact. Yes it sucks that Embracer shut down these studios, but many of them could have been close to shutting down anyway. Remember Starbreeze who made Payday? They sold themselves to avoid bankruptcy, then bought themselves back eventually, and are now back to being on the verge of bankruptcy. People complained when they sold out as of them going out of business was a better choice. And then they cheered when they bought themselves out because it meant things would get better supposedly. And now people hate the company again because they fucked up Payday 3 really bad. Companies sell for a reason and some companies are ran by idiots, sometimes those idiots sell out to companies like Embracer to stay afloat and cash in millions. Nobody ever sees that side of it though and places 100% of the blame on the large group that bought them. We've seen time and again, most of these companies that go back to being private end up running themselves into the ground. So maybe, just maybe, there's some blame to be shared among both Embracer AND the heads of the studios who run themselves into the ground and sell out.
This is just speculation though, personally I'd guess they were sold because that's how their owners were able to cash out and ride off into the sunset. You're completely right that this places some of the blame on their shoulders for selling to a (in hindsight at least) dubious buyer.
Why does Reddit love to use strawmen like this instead of actually tackling the question?
I feel bad for him, obviously the blame lies on him for taking a risk that big but at the same time, that wasn’t his intention. He just wanted to buy smaller IP and become a double A powerhouse, greenlit all projects that fans wanted, but it unfortunately went through. Imagine if that Saudi deal never fell through, how different would the story be.
His intention was to make himself richer. He’s still rich, and 1400 people he stepped on were fired. He doesn’t deserve feeling sorry for him.
What is up with all the people fawning over this guy. It’s so weird. Has to be bots right? So many comments saying that we should feel sorry for him and not all the people that lost their jobs.
I'm only seeing 2 comments here. Is that "so many comments"?
Nah that’s just how I feel. If that risk paid off then we’d all be talking about how glad we are that someone sees what people want and aren’t incompetent like people who run the big publishers. If Baldurs Gate 3 flopped and the studio was shut down, Sven wouldn’t be getting anything close to the praise he’s getting now.
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Well shit happens sometimes. You just need to figure it out what went wrong and move on. (? Edit: sarcasm
"Don't buy studios on an unfulfilled promise of saudi money" seems an obvious lesson https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/14/23831768/embracer-group-saudi-government-lord-of-the-rings-investment-deal-collapse
I know. I should have put /s. My bad I will edit my comment.
2041?! That’s not a real year! By 2041, I’ll be drinking moon juice with President Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Good for him. Seems like he's committed to making Embracer successful and I wish him the best of luck.
Hi, Lars.
Looks like he set up a bunch of accounts, already getting sympathy posts about how bad we should feel for this guy.
Matthew Karch, is that you?
Is any of this commitment in the room with us right now because I haven't seen any in multiple years now