Take-Two Interactive has sold Joytech, a videogame accessory manufacturer, to its former rival Mad Catz.
The sale includes all of Joytech’s assets, including its staff, and follows in step with Take-Two’s recently announced plan to divest itself of non-core businesses. “The sale of the Joytech assets is consistent with one of the key gaols we established in our 100 Day Plan: To develop strategic alterantives for any operations that we determiend to be outside our core publishing business,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. “We are particularly pleased that we accomplished this goal in a manner that will allow substantially all of our Joytech employees in the U.S. and U.K. to join Mad Catz, which is a highly respected provider of videogame peripherals.”
Both Joytech, which had previously been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two, and Mad Catz manufacture controllers and other accessories for all major game consoles and the PC.
Take-Two’s “100 Day Plan” was originally announced in April, after a new management team had taken over the company following a shareholder revolt. The plan involved a restructuring and consolidation of Take-Two’s North American and international operations in order to create a more “efficient and responsive” organization, and was implemented following heavy year-on-year losses in 2006 and 2007. According to a Take-Two press release, the Joytech sale is not expected to be material to Take-Two’s financial results.
