Press Releases
Frogster Asia expands product portfolio with a casual MMO Game
Update on revenues and update regarding shareholder pool
Frogster Asia Co. Ltd., Korean subsidiary of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, international publisher of massively multiplayer online games with headquarters in Berlin, announces the launch of the casual MMO game ‘Ghost Fighter’ in Korea for the third quarter 2010. ‘Ghost Fighter’ was developed by the Chinese online games group Shanda Games and is a so-called “side scroller”, a genre which enjoys a great deal of popularity within the Asian territories. The new casual MMO game in Frogster Asia’s portfolio has already been published in China very successfully and currently documents around 130,000 concurrent users with an upward trend. ‘Ghost Fighter’ is similar to the already five year old ‘Dungeon & Fighter’ which is the most successful game in this genre. However, it comes with a newer technology, higher graphic quality, an exciting storyline and contains various new elements of game-play. Sunny Park, Frogster Asia’s CEO, sees great chances of success for this casual MMO game on the Korean market and has taken on the search for a financing for the product’s marketing budget in the a six-digit USD amount. Frogster Interactive could also provide this financing in exchange for an increase of its stake in its subsidiary Frogster Asia.
Update on the title ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’
Frogster Asia has not yet been able to reach an agreement with the Dutch developer Spellborn on further cooperation with the developer regarding the intended release of the free-to-play version of the MMO game ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ in Asia. The management had already informed about the uncertain outcome of the ongoing talks on various occasions. If the developer continues to fall short to their contractual duties towards Frogster Interactive, Frogster will reclaim the paid prepayments for the product of a seven-digit Euro amount while it is unknown whether the developer could make such a payment. The company has already fully written off all prepayments on Frogster’s balance sheet regarding the game so that no noteworthy negative impacts are impending.
Update on current revenues
In April 2010, the Frogster Group has again reached a new monthly revenue record with the MMO game ‘Runes of Magic’. In April, also the group’s total revenue was only slightly below the one of the month of March. Frogster expects further revenue increases from the roll-out into the recently launched Polish language version, from additional game contents, especially the third chapter ‘Runes of Magic – The Elder Kingdoms’ which will be released in the running month of May 2010, from further large-scale marketing campaigns, and from improvements in functions such as the already announced enabling of impulse purchases within the game and the reduction of the data volume of the initial game download with a “slim client”.
Update on the pool of shareholders
Regarding the interest pursued by a Frogster shareholder pool to acquire an anchor shareholder, the appointed M&A advisory firm Corporate Finance Partners (CFP) has extended the deadline to hand in letters of intent by the potential buyers to mid-May in order to give them the opportunity for the assessment of statistical evaluations and information delivered recently by Frogster on the newly purchased browser MMO game licenses. Currently, talks with potential buyers take place on an ongoing basis, amongst others in Berlin and London. The due diligence has now been scheduled for the end of May. The pool shareholders’ contractual obligation and with this, the term for the accomplishment of a possible transaction terminate unchanged on June 30th, 2010.
Replacement of a seat in the supervisory board
Mr. Erasmios Bizimis has put down his mandate in the Frogster supervisory board before the end of his term in office effective per the end of the shareholder meeting on June 16th 2010 in order to allow the reelection of a member of the supervisory board from the group of major shareholders. The supervisory board will propose to the shareholder meeting Mr. Günther Paul Löw, lawyer and member of the management board of Impera Total Return AG, an institutional shareholder of Frogster, for election onto the supervisory board.
