{"id":49710,"date":"2013-01-24T01:07:14","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T23:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=49710"},"modified":"2013-01-24T01:09:42","modified_gmt":"2013-01-23T23:09:42","slug":"thq-managements-letter-to-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/49710-thq-managements-letter-to-employees","title":{"rendered":"THQ management&#8217;s letter to employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Game publisher THQ has declared bankruptcy and <a title=\"List of THQ assets auctioned to publishers\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/49706-list-of-thq-assets-auctioned-off-to-publishers.html\" target=\"_blank\">the company&#8217;s assets have been sold off<\/a>. THQ company president and the CEO addressed employees in a letter, which Kotaku received and published.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To All THQ Employees:<\/p>\n<p>We now have the answers we&#8217;ve been seeking through our financial restructuring and<br \/>\nChapter 11 case. While much will be written, here are the facts of the bids and auction<br \/>\nthat occurred t:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yesterday morning, we received a competing bid for the operating business,<br \/>\nalong with Clearlake&#8217;s offer, and numerous offers for separate assets.<\/li>\n<li>During an auction process that lasted over 22 hours, the final conclusion was<br \/>\nthat the separate-asset bids would net more than a single buyer for the majority<br \/>\nof the company.<\/li>\n<li>Shortly, we will, present the results to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which must<br \/>\nconcur with our assessment.<\/li>\n<li>The proposed sales of multiple assets is as follows :<\/li>\n<li>Sega agreed to purchase Relic<\/li>\n<li>Koch Media agreed to purchase Volition and Metro<\/li>\n<li>Crytek agreed to purchase Homefront<\/li>\n<li>Take 2 agreed purchase Evolve and<\/li>\n<li>Ubisoft agreed to purchase Montreal and South Park<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We expect these sales to close this week.<\/p>\n<p>Some assets, including our publishing businesses and Vigil, along with some other<br \/>\nintellectual properties are not included in the sale agreements. They will remain part of<br \/>\nthe Chapter 11 case. We will make every effort to find appropriate buyers, if possible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What this means for employees<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We expect that most employees of the entities included in the sale will be offered<br \/>\nemployment by the new owners. However, we cannot say what these owners may<br \/>\nintend, and there will likely be some positions that will not be needed under the<br \/>\nnew ownership. You should receive notice this week or early next week if the new<br \/>\nowners intend to extend employment to you. Please note that the terms of your new<br \/>\nemployment, including pay and benefits, may be different from the current terms of<br \/>\nyour employment with THQ.<\/p>\n<p>If you are an employee of an entity that is not included in the sale, we regret that<br \/>\nyour position will end. A small number of our headquarters staff will continue to be<br \/>\nemployed by THQ beyond January 25 to assist with the transition. THQ has sufficient<br \/>\nresources to pay these employees for work going forward, and we will be contacting<br \/>\nthese employees immediately to ensure their continued employment during this<br \/>\ntransition period. We are requesting the ability to offer certain severance pay to<br \/>\nminimize disruption for employees of non-included entities as they determine the next<br \/>\nsteps in their careers.<\/p>\n<p>We know you will have many questions about this news. We&#8217;ll be meeting tomorrow<br \/>\nwhen we return to talk through this announcement and to answer any questions you<br \/>\nhave. You will receive a benefits fact sheet and FAQs with answers to some questions<br \/>\nthat may be on your mind. Please review these materials closely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A personal note<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The work that you all have done as part of the THQ family is imaginative, creative,<br \/>\nartistic and highly valued by our loyal gamers. We are proud of what we have<br \/>\naccomplished despite today&#8217;s outcome.<\/p>\n<p>It has been our privilege to work alongside the entire THQ team. While the company<br \/>\nwill cease to exist, we are heartened that the majority of our studios and games will<br \/>\ncontinue under new ownership. We were hoping that the entire company would remain<br \/>\nintact, but we expect to hear good news from each of the separate entities that will be<br \/>\noperating as part of new organizations.<\/p>\n<p>For those THQ employees who are part of entities that are not included in the sale, we<br \/>\nare confident that the talent you have displayed as part of THQ will be recognized as you<br \/>\ntake the next steps in your career.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all for your dedication and for sharing your talent with the THQ team. We<br \/>\nwish you the best of luck and hope you will keep in touch.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Brian Farrell<br \/>\nChief Executive Officer<\/p>\n<p>Jason Rubin<br \/>\nPresident<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Source: <a title=\"Kotaku\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kotaku.com\" target=\"_blank\">Kotaku<\/a><\/h5>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More industry news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/48641-thq-files-for-bankruptcy-sells-assets.html\">THQ files for bankruptcy, sells assets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"List of THQ assets auctioned to publishers\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/49706-list-of-thq-assets-auctioned-off-to-publishers.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>List of THQ assets auctioned to publishers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A letter to THQ employees details the outcome of bankruptcy proceedings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":49711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31,4717,3510,369,8185],"class_list":["post-49710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-active","tag-gaming-industry","tag-industry-news","tag-thq","tag-thq-bankrupt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49712,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49710\/revisions\/49712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}