Mad Catz Interactive has announced it is filing for bankruptcy today. The parent company of Mad Catz Inc and the audio company Tritton said, yesterday, it will voluntary file as its directors and officers will all resign. Mad Catz Inc, of course, is the popular video game peripheral manufacturer (they make accessories like head sets, controllers, keyboards, mice, and more), but chapter 7 will see an end to that. For now, it is uncertain what will happen to audio company Tritton.
Any fan of video games—and Mad Catz accessories, in particular—would likely already be aware that the company has been having trouble the last few years. As a matter of fact, in 2015 the company warned of “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue,” as a result of uncertainty regarding the performance of Rock Band 4 (a gamble the company made as a venture into software). But it might also be that the company’s managerial shake up, early last year, which might have helped lead to slowing production. This restructuring saw a major cut in a massive part of the company’s work force, a sign, perhaps, of things to come. And, at that time, Harmonix announced plans to partner with Mad Catz Inc competitor PDP for future Rock Band 4 hardware.
This might have been the final nail in the proverbial coffin, but Mad Catz CFO Karen McGinnis acknowledged: “Although the overall Rock Band 4 program was incredibly disappointing for us, exiting the relationship with Harmonix at this time allows us to focus our efforts on the development and execution of our other exciting profitable product launches.”
Indeed, she may have been quite wrong. Already, in January, share prices for the company dropped. This put the company at great risk of being listed from the NYSE index.
With that, McGinnis goes on to explain, “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. 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.”
