Mad Catz is a gaming company many gamers will know quite well. Since the early 1990s, the company has been a prolific producer of gaming accessories of all types. The company has produced everything from controller and fightsticks, to rhythm game instruments and headsets over the years, growing into one of the bigger names in the industry for producing peripherals.
Mad Catz has had a long history of acquisitions that proved profitable for them. in 2003, after the company behind it went bankrupt, Mad Catz bought out the GameShark brand, later acquiring both Saitek and Joytech in 2007. The subject of this article, Tritton, was acquired in 2010. Mad Catz then produced a variety of gaming headsets under the Tritton brand over the next few years, hitting both budget and high-end markets.
All in all, the picture looked pretty rosy for the peripheral maker. Everything changed in 2017. As of March 30, 2017 the company had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This meant that the company had filed for full and immediate liquidation of all assets and staff. The company was also delisted from the NYSE around this time.
This collapse came after several years of financial troubles and internal shakeups. Nearly 40% of the workforce of the company was fired throughout 2016. In that same year, sales of their peripherals were far below expectations, and forced a sale of Saitek for $13 million, a company which Mad Catz had originally paid $30 million to acquire. The original Mad Catz company was no more.
But a few months ago, a reformation of the company made moves to re-enter the market. Mad Catz returned in 2018 with a whole new slate of products at CES in Las Vegas. A spokesman told CNet at the time a Chinese holding company had bought nearly all of its assets. Mad Catz Global Limited Executive Board of Directors member Lucian Lu said the company has been overwhelmed with support from retail, distributors, and the gaming community since making its comeback.
This week, the company announced a sale of the Tritton brand and assets to another company. The assets sold includes specified trademarks valid in the U.S., China, Hong Kong, and Russia.
The company buying the brand is seemingly a subsidiary of Skysea International Capital Management, a Chinese real estate conglomerate based in Australia, which is itself an indirect subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ICBC is listed as the largest bank in the world by both total assets and market capitalization.
Here’s the statement on the sale from Lucian Lu on behalf of Mad Catz:
“We remain highly focused on exceeding expectations for the brand, and look forward to the imminent shipping of our first line of new Mad Catz products. As we put our combined efforts into growing the Mad Catz brand, we are pleased to find a buyer who can devote the time and resources needed to see the Tritton line flourish and wish Silkysea International every good luck with their future Tritton endeavours.”
