OCT. 2, 2009 • Polish distributor CD Projekt (who also owns digital distributor GoG.com) is bypassing the normal procedures to go from a private company to a publicly-traded company. To that end, CD Projekt has signed a letter of intent with Optimus S.A., a near defunct PC assembly enterprise. The latter is publicly traded, and would acquire 100% CD Projekt with its own shares. If finalized, the deal would leave the owners of CD Projekt as the controlling shareholders of Optimus – which provides CD Projekt a swift entry onto the Warsaw stock market.
Impact: CD Projekt is a game developer, but they are most noted as a leading distributor for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In terms of population, these former Soviet block countries combined have as many people as the U.K. or France. These are growing markets that while suffering from high piracy rates and struggling economies, have a strong interest in games.