Major League Gaming, once the largest esports company in North America, is going out of business. In a special meeting on Dec. 21, MLG’s Board of Directors approved an Asset Purchase Agreement granting Activision Blizzard a large majority of MLG’s assets in exchange for $46 million.
The next day, a letter went out to stockholders informing them of the sale. We have included an excerpt below:
In addition to these changes, CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has been removed from his role and replaced by Greg Chisholm, MLG’s former CFO.
The move was done as a “corporate action taken without a stockholders’ meeting by less than unanimous written consent of our stockholders,” allowed under Section 228(e) of the Delaware General Corporation Law.
Stockholders in this category include Treehouse Capital LLC, Ritchie Opportunistic Trading Ltd., Oak Investment Partners, and Legion Capital Investments LLC—managed by Mike Sepso, co-founder of MLG and current senior vice president of esports at Activision Blizzard.
MLG, as we know it, is over.
Stockholders not in these categories are largely meeting the decision in disbelief. Some speculate that the majority of the sale will go towards paying off MLG’s debts, leaving little to go around for the remaining stockholders. MLG has filed formultiple debt financing rounds this year alone, for a sum of over $6 million. “I got fucked on stock,” said an affected stockholder, who wanted to remain anonymous.
Activision buys out MLG
MLG steps down after leading the esports scene in North America for quite some time. For many years, the company successfully ran tournaments across the United States for StarCraft 2, Call of Duty, and other titles. MLG also announced that it was building an arena in China.
However, MLG has also taken on recent blows, such as when rival ESL was named as the tournament runner for the Call of Duty World League.
Only time will tell how this move affects other MLG ventures, such as the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship in Columbus, OH. The only thing known for sure is that MLG, as we know it, is over.
