You might have come across recent speculations about the Witcher developing studio CD Projekt gearing up to fight off a possible hostile takeover. These rumors were based out of the schedule of an “extraordinary general meeting of shareholders,” translated by NeoGAF user Boskee, stated that the attendees would be making a vote on whether to buy back the previously sold $64 million of its own shares, whether to merge its brands, or whether to bring changes to its statute to put new limits on the voting rights of big shark shareholders.
These changes are actually meant to make the company a lot more resilient towards unwelcome overtures from the major players, but as a Polish site RP.pl mentioned (Google translated),
The question is whether this is a hypothetical situation, or whether the investor is already on the horizon.
Fortunately, for anyone who genuinely wishes CD Projekt remains independent(like the staff at CDPR), it has informed WCCFTech that the current situation is very much the former.
The proposal is not a reaction to any current events affecting CD Projekt. Rather, it is meant as insurance against future hypothetical scenarios which may never materialise, we wish to safeguard the interests of minority shareholders in a hypothetical case where a major shareholder emerges professing a business and strategic vision which conflicts with ours.
This is not the first time the speculation of a possible CDPR takeover has been in mentions. During September 2015, EA was reported to be looking into acquiring the company, which not too much later was also proved to be fake news. I was glad then, and I’m sure as hell glad now.
CD Projekt is far from the scrappy little underdog it was about ten years ago, but it still marches to its own beat. And although it hasn’t exactly been ubiquitous like the other franchises and developers over the past decade, I’m more than happy to accept quality over quantity any day.
