MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Late on Friday, peripheral maker Mad Catz announced that it’s ceasing operations and has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy.
"Regrettably and notwithstanding that for a significant amount of time the Company has been actively pursuing its strategic alternatives, including various near-term financing alternatives such as bank financing and equity infusions, as well as potential sales of certain assets of the Company or a sale of the Company in its entirety, the Company has been unable to find a satisfactory solution to its cash liquidity problems," CEO Karen McGinnis, who resigned in addition to all of the companies directors and officers on Thursday, said in a statement.
"The Board of Directors and management would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the Company’s employees in support of its business, especially during the time that the Company faced financial difficulties. The Company would also like to thank the vendors and professional service providers who have supported the Company’s efforts during this time."
After the resignations, Mad Catz’ board agreed to begin the bankruptcy proceedings voluntarily, seeing that no sale was likely and no further lines of credit could be found. PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as the company’s trustee.
Mad Catz was a mainstay of the 90’s, known mostly for its range of gaming peripherals and for manufacturing many people’s second controllers in the PlayStation era. It also expanded into gaming headsets and flight sticks with the acquisition of companies Tritton and Saitek. Unfortunately, a gamble in publishing that led to Mad Catz co-publishing Rock Band 4 with Harmonix went poorly for the company, and lead to the CEO, general council and the company’s chairman of the board all resigning a day before the company announced plans to lay off 37% of its employees as part of a restructure.
It seems like even these drastic measure weren’t enough to save the company, and earlier this week before filing for bankruptcy they were delisted from the NYSE.
