The company divests from one of its business areas, which become part of the Genda company. SEGA expects “extraordinary losses.”
SEGA Sammy Holdings has announced the sale of the majority of the shares of its SEGA Entertainment division to the Japanese company Genda Inc., which includes the arcade and arcade business. The Japanese firm, especially affected by the consequences of COVID-19, has acknowledged in the last meeting with investors held this Wednesday that they expect to end this fiscal year with “extraordinary losses.”
Genda Inc., will decide and manage SEGA Entertainment’s business
According to Games Industry, the amount of shares transferred to Genda Inc. is 85.1%, so that the latter becomes the largest shareholder of what until now we understood as SEGA Entertainment. The parents of Sonic the Hedgehog will hold 14.9% of the remaining shares, although it will be Sammy who will hold voting power; SEGA will get out of this equation from now on and will be able to continue operating in the production and sale of machines.
SEGA closed the Akihabara Building 2 in August 2020
This transaction shelves a particularly delicate situation for the company since the beginning of the year, when the closures of iconic arcades or, later, in August, the SEGA Building Two in the Akihabara neighborhood were announced. It should be noted that the sale of this business does not imply the closure of the current rooms with SEGA machines, but rather that Genda will be able to establish a new management and administration strategy.
“Despite the most recent recovery trend, the situation remains uncertain,” says SEGA Sammy, which will close the current fiscal year on March 31 with millionaire losses yet to be quantified. The sale of the amusement machine business in arcades is not only due to the consequences of the pandemic, but it has been one of the triggers. Also, another aspect to note is that SEGA, independently of SEGA Entertainment’s lounge management, manufactures and sells arcade machines.
Other companies such as Konami, also far from the traditional arcade machine business, have turned their arcade strategy to pachinko machines.
