"In light of recent speculation, the Board of SCi Entertainment Group plc ('SCi' or the 'Company') confirms that it has recently received an indicative proposal from a third party relating to a possible offer for the Company at a significant premium to the Company's current share price.

The proposal offered mostly equity consideration but the third party would have assumed responsibility for the Company's funding requirements. In common with other indicative proposals received by the Company over the last six months, none of which has led to a firm offer being made for the Company, this proposal was expressed to be subject to conditions, including significant due diligence.

The Board considers, amongst other things, that the proposal does not represent sufficient value and that, given the Group's significant short- to medium-term funding requirements, the pursuit of an uncertain takeover proposal with consequent delay and risks to the Company's proposed issuance of new equity to fund the execution of its revised strategic plan would not be in the best interests of the Company or its shareholders. Accordingly the Company is not pursuing discussions in relation to this proposal and the proposed equity fundraising remains the Company's priority at this time."

ARTICLE SOURCE: SCi ENTERTAINMENT

ORIGINAL ARTICLE... SCi TO ACCEPT BUYOUT OFFER?

The SCi rumours are rolling back in. After the ridiculous (and short-lived) rumour that NBC Universal, Microsoft and Sony were interested in (and even willing to jointly own) the UK’s biggest publisher, SCi, and then rumours stating that Infogrames, Ubisoft and Time Warner were after the failing publisher, we now hear that Phil Rogers (new CEO of SCi) is ready to accept a deal from one of two (or possibly even both) companies – NBC Universal or Time Warner.

Time Warner is looking to increase it's share in SCi (it so far owns 10%) and NBC Universal wants to buy a chunk of SCi too. The deal is said to be finalised by 2 weeks time but these are just estimations - the rumours haven’t be confirmed as true. So, how does this affect SCi, the developers of our beloved Tomb Raider franchise? Well, hopefully, in a good way. Both NBC Universal (which is partly owned by Vivendi who recently merged their gaming division with Activision to form ‘Activision-Blizzard’) and Time Warner have cash...and lots of it. SCi needs £45-55 million to launch its up-coming games, which includes Tomb Raider Underworld, successfully.

In addition to the money, Time Warner and NBC’s parents have a good reputation in the gaming world. Vivendi has some amazing games and some great studios including Blizzard, and Sierra. Not to mention Time Warner is said to allow much more freedom to it's developers.

These factors alone could mean a brighter future for SCi. The company has been trailing behind for years and is in need of large amounts of cash. Because of EA trading employees with Microsoft and trying to swallow Take Two (which owns Rockstar and 2K Games), Ubisoft taking over India, Sony launching much anticipated games this year and Infogrames (which is in a similar situation to SCi) already hiring Phil Harrison (ex Sony executive) as their President, trying to buy out Atari (which it owns 51% of) and considering changing its own name to ‘Atari’ things in the gaming world are getting tougher (not to mention too confusing!). Will SCi be able to survive the competition?

The most likely result will be NBC Universal buying a share but either deal can help SCi. If this is all true the NBC Universal deal will be around $100 million. As one source rightly said so – ‘If these current buyout talks don't lead to anything, then this may be one tomb that even Lara Croft can't get out of.’

ARTICLE AUTHOR: MUNEEB AHMAD