Recently, Shanda has been in talks with Xiamen G-bits Company, the developer of "Wen Dao", for acquisition. A few days ago, the company announced its upcoming release "Wen Ding", as the sister piece of "Wen Dao", which has already caught the attention of several game operation companies. Shanda's involvement this time has added another layer of mystery to who will ultimately acquire "Wen Ding".
This acquisition can be seen as a move by Shanda to strengthen its own R&D capabilities. After experiencing the copyright issues with "The Legendary Journey" in the past, Shanda eventually consolidated its position by acquiring upstream game developers. Since then, Shanda has gradually increased its investment in game development. Clearly, Shanda has transitioned from a purely game agency-based online game operation company to a comprehensive company that focuses on agency with self-development as a supplement.
However, prior to this, Xiamen G-bits Company had already received substantial investment from venture capitalist IDG. Although recently in Shanghai, Shanda's president, Tianqiao Chen, personally met with multiple senior managers of G-bits, the final outcome of the talks remains unclear.
On June 1st at noon, Xiamen G-bits Company's general manager, Huazhou Su, denied the rumor of "Shanda's intention to acquire G-bits" to Sina Technology. In a statement sent by G-bits, it was stated that "G-bits has never had any contact with Shanda regarding financing and acquisition". On the morning of June 1st, there were reports that Shanda intended to acquire G-bits and claimed that "Tianqiao Chen had a secret meeting with G-bits' senior management in Shanghai recently." Huazhou Su stated that there was no such thing as Shanda acquiring G-bits, but he did not comment on whether he met with Tianqiao Chen or not. Shanda's spokesperson, Hui Zuge, stated that they would not comment on this news.
G-bits developed the turn-based online game "Wen Dao", operated by Huaxia Guangyu. It is said that the highest number of concurrent users exceeded 600,000. The sequel to "Wen Dao", "Wen Ding", has been basically completed and will begin internal testing in July. There are many companies in the industry interested in agency rights. This rumor about Shanda's acquisition may be related to the operation rights of "Wen Ding" (Zhang Shikang).
Original statement from G-bits:
Today, the rumors about Shanda's intention to acquire G-bits have no basis and are not true. G-bits has never had any contact with Shanda regarding financing and acquisition. G-bits is currently operating well, "Wen Dao" has stable market performance, and its subsequent work "Wen Ding" is in the final stages of development and will soon be released. Currently, G-bits has no reason to accept external capital injection. Finally, we thank all media friends and numerous players, we will continue to focus on the domestic market, and develop higher quality products.
Xiamen G-bits Network Technology Co., Ltd. 2007-6-1
These two pieces come from:
beareyes.com.cn
enet.com.cn