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Starbreeze offices raided because of insider crime

Perzeval

Perzeval

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,525
Sweden
There doesn't seem to be much information as of yet but Starbreeze's offices has apparently been raided in light of a 'serious insider crime' and one person is detained.

Swedish news SVT

"Google translate" said:
The ECO, EBM, has conducted a raid against the game development company Starbreeze's headquarters in Stockholm. The reason is suspicions of serious insider crimes, says Dagens Industri.

A person is deprived of liberty, "said EBM's presidential speaker Niklas Ahlgren to the newspaper.

Today's industry has previously written that several executives in Starbreeze sold a larger number of shares in the company shortly before the company gained profits and also replaced the CEO.
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Keasar said:
English article by Eurogamer:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-05-arrest-made-in-starbreeze-office-raid
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Last edited:
LossAversion

LossAversion

The Merchant of ERA
Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,656
Man, this is so sad.

Starbreeze made some excellent games over the years. I guess they sort of shifted into a publishing role over the past few years? And now this...
 
wrowa

wrowa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,371
"Insider crime" meaning insider trading? Considering they seem to be a rapidly sinking ship, I'm not particularly surprised someone on the inside might have tried to make a few bucks before the rest of the world got to know about their dire situation.
 
johancruijff

johancruijff

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,232
Italy
SplendidEntireAfricanbushviper-size_restricted.gif
 
Rodjer

Rodjer

Self-requested ban.
Member
Jan 28, 2018
4,808
From the company that brought you Payday, how ironic.


What the fuck is happening there
 
Uhyve

Uhyve

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,166
After a quick google search.

But they're the publishers for Psychonauts 2!
 
Adulfzen

Adulfzen

Member
Oct 29, 2017
3,606
Is Overkill pretty much done as a company then ? I don't see how they could recover from that.
 
Vervain

Vervain

Member
Oct 27, 2017
291
Man, good luck getting outside funding to keep the company going if the allegations of "several executives" selling off their stock right before the administration announcement are true.
 
IIFloodyII

IIFloodyII

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,942
Would this be a final blow or is it possible they survive? They were pretty much already on their last legs.
 
DarkDetective

DarkDetective

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,906
The Netherlands
hanmik said:
yeah I found an article not behind a paywall..

https://www.breakit.se/artikel/17244/ekobrottsmyndigheten-har-slagit-till-mot-starbreeze-huvudkontor
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Ouch!

"In mid November, outgoing CFO Sebastian Ahlskog sold his entire stake in Starbreeze for a total of SEK 3.3 million. At about the same time, outgoing CEO Bo Andersson Klint sold shares for a total of SEK 18.6 million. The transactions were made at stock prices around SEK 4-6."

The stock currently goes for SEK ~0,80...

($1 ~ SEK 10)
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,728
Paraside said:
This story is way too tragic. Let's pour one out for Starbreeze.
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The fate of the studio appears to be one of tragedy, yeah.

That said, if execs were gaming their priveledged info for their own personal profits on the stock market then that's still a crime and getting arrested is just part of the deal.
 

Deleted member 2595

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,475
Gattsu25 said:
The fate of the studio appears to be one of tragedy, yeah.

That said, if execs were gaming their priveledged info for their own personal profits on the stock market then that's still a crime and getting arrested is just part of the deal.
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One hundred per cent, and that just adds to the tragedy. That Starbreeze's golden age slipped away over the last ten years, no doubt in the midst of such misbehaviour.
 
BernardoOne

BernardoOne

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,289
I was getting worried for Dead by Daylight but then I googled and it seems the Devs actually bought the rights to the game earlier this year, neat.
 
justiceiro

justiceiro

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
6,664
images

I still remember when the first thing the new CEO did when he took reing was to introduce microtransactions, something that they said previously they would never do. They walked back, but I guess the writing was in the wall.
 
berzeli

berzeli

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,384
I do love the pic that di.se has of the raid:
bigOriginal.jpg


Makes things seem less dramatic, but uh yeah. This seems like a real clear cut insider trading case, which isn't all that surprising considering who was running the company.

edit: Oh, allegedly they delayed information about profit warnings and change of CEO on November 15th, same day that the CEO + other dude sold their stocks. Could you at least try and be competent with either running a game studio or committing crimes? I'm not asking for much here, just show some basic competency in one area of your professional life.
 
Danzflor

Danzflor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,710
mnz said:
Oh no, does Double Fine need to look for a new publisher for their new Psychonauts title? What is this, 2004?
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I completely forgot about this detail, but at least DF owns all the IP so it's not inmediate trouble for them, but if I were Tim, I would start doing some calls ASAP.
 
7threst

7threst

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,297
Netherlands
Sad news :(
I'll never forget after Octamed I perfected my composing and sequencing with Fasttracker II back when they were called Triton. I'll be always thankful for that.
 
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