JUNE 27, 2009 • Warner Bros. $33 million offer turned out to be the sole bidder for Midway Games assets. With no other bidders, the auction originally scheduled to sell of the publisher’s products like Mortal Kombat was cancelled. A Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the acquisition on July 2.

Impact: Midway had been on life support for years.  The company was only able to survive with the support of Viacom head Sumner Redstone who hoped the company would provide him an entry to the video game market.  Clearly the key asset Warner Bros. is after is the Mortal Kombat IP.  In 2008, Warner Bros had partnered with Midway to release Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.  Now, Warner Bros has complete ownership of the IP going forward.