Tecmo, Koei Plan To Merge In 2009

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Not long after rejecting Square-Enix's friendly buyout proposal, troubled publisher Tecmo has decided to merge with Dynasty Warriors creator, Koei. According to Bloomberg, the merger should go through early next year, and then Koei will reorganize the holding company. Things have been bumpy for Tecmo ever since high-profile designer Tomonobu Itagaki left the company earlier this year.

It seems Tecmo and Koei started talking about this last month, and now this move will hopefully benefit both companies. Square-Enix's Yoichi Wada had this to say on the subject- "Tecmo is a group of excellent creators with a proven track record in the global market, which is a precious human resource of Japan. We, however, cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances surrounding Tecmo." Koei president Kenji Matsubara said this merger still doesn't put both publishers in the clear, but he did say they "plan to make the most of this merger," and future acquisitions may be possible in the near future. In the ever-growing and ultra-competitive games market, it can be difficult to survive when you don't continually put out big-name titles that sell in all corners of the globe.

But hey, Tecmo and Koei could do some interesting things, provided they don't collapse under the weight of that aforementioned competition. We'll keep an eye on the proceedings to see how the merger plays out, and we'll let you know if anything of interest occurs.

P.S. Sometimes, business news can be boring. Thus, the Tecmo pic with the Japanese hotties for your benefit.

10/1/2008 Ben Dutka

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