Embracer Group is currently undergoing major internal reorganisation after apparently overextending, with hard-working employees bearing the cost in the ensuing layoffs and closures. This restructuring has already begun, but a new report has shed some further light on how the situation all came about.
Axios reports, citing "four sources familiar with the deal", that the Swedish holding company's mystery partner, the one that walked away from a deal worth $2 billion after seven months of negotiations, was none other than Savvy Games. A "verbal agreement" was in place, and this reversal caused Embracer's shares to plummet 40% in response.
The Savvy Games Group is chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the millennial Crown Prince (and Prime Minister) of Saudia Arabia, and the state-funded investment group is itself snapping up developers at an astonishing rate. Mohammed bin Salman (or "MBS", as he prefers) is a controversial figure whose plans for the future include using the vast capital in Saudia Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, or Public Investment Fund (PIF), to invest billions into (amongst other things) acquiring video game companies.
Embracer declined at the time to confirm the identity of its potential partner. Axios adds that its sources were "less certain about why Savvy walked away", and so that piece of the puzzle still eludes us.