Shareholders Approve Sega/Sammy Merger

Although it has largely been a formality, considering that Sammy president Hajime Satomi now controls around a quarter of Sega’s voting stock, shareholders have approved the merger between Sammy and Sega. The next step is for both companies’ shares to be withdrawn from trading on the Nikkei stock exchange on 27th September 2004, to be followed by the issuing of shares in Sega Sammy Holdings on 1st October 2004. Both companies will continue to operate separately at first, but the eventual plan is that four divisions will be formed - with Pachinko, Pachinslot and other gambling concerns using the Sammy brand, while Sega's brand will be applied to the amusement and consumer games division. The third divisions will be media content and network, with the fourth being "miscellaneous operations”. The merger is one of the largest ever to take place in the games industry and will create a new company that expects to generate half a trillion yen ($3.8bn) in revenue during 2005 – which would make it one of the top three publishers in the world. Source: gamesindustry.biz