General Entertainment Embracer Group paid $395 million to acquire Middle-Earth Enterprises (LotR/Hobbit holding company) last year

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Embracer Group Paid $395 Million for ‘Lord of the Rings’ Rights

VARIETY.COM

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Embracer paid $395 million - far less than estimated - for the rights to 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit.'

 

Quote

 

Embracer Group, the Swedish gaming conglomerate that snapped up the rights to “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” in a surprise deal last summer, has finally revealed how much it paid – and it seems like they got a bargain.

 

The Karlstad-headquartered company has confirmed it spent SEK 4.2 billion – $395 million at today’s conversion rates – to acquire Middle-Earth Enterprises from the Saul Zaentz Company last August.

 

At the time the deal was announced, Embracer and Saul Zaentz declined to say how much the “Lord of the Rings” holding company had sold for. But estimates at the time projected the rights – which include worldwide rights to films, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions – were worth up to $2 billion.

 

It turns out the reality fell significantly short of that.

 

For contrast, Amazon is rumored to have paid $250 million alone for the rights to make the TV series “The Rings of Power,” which they snapped up directly from the J.R.R. Tolkien estate (the right to make a “LOTR” TV series longer than eight episodes was one of the few interests in the franchise not owned by Saul Zaentz).

 

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Anybody else feel like this company is buying way more than it is outputting and will implode very soon? I dunno, just seems like within a few years there’s gonna be a fire sale on IPs. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

3 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Anybody else feel like this company is buying way more than it is outputting and will implode very soon? I dunno, just seems like within a few years there’s gonna be a fire sale on IPs. 

 

 

Did you see this thread?

 

 

However, the main point of the Variety article is that it genuinely appears that the industry analysts severely overestimated the value of the LotR/Hobbit IP ($2 billion estimate vs <$400 million actual).

[Keyser_Soze]

This is why they plan to exploit the IP, or whatever they said. But I don't think people flock to LOTR games like that.

[Fizzzzle]

3 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

This is why they plan to exploit the IP, or whatever they said. But I don't think people flock to LOTR games like that.

The Tolkien estate is famously cagey about the rights to anything middle earth. I think that makes the rights to anything middle earth related inherently less valuable when it comes to games.