Razer’s products, generally aimed at gamers, have a strong reputation. This hardware specialist has been able to cultivate a unique strategy that goes against the tide of the major PC manufacturers. Its founder, who created the company 24 years ago, launched a takeover bid. His goal: to remove Razer from the stock market.
Razer shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to take the Singaporean company off the stock exchange. As we have seen for Free, and more recently Twitter, 94% of shareholders as well as the leaders of Razer want to launch a takeover bid. The Hong Kong-listed company is expected to announce its delisting on May 10, 2022, according to a statement released earlier.
As a reminder, Razer is an American-Singaporean multinational company, its head office is located in Singapore. The company was founded in 1998 by Min Liang Tan. The founder is still CEO of Razer, he owns more than 57% of his company. For the record, Razer also owns Ouya (a stillborn Android game console), THX (audio specialist), but also Nextbit (a manufacturer of Android smartphones that no longer exists) .
Private is the new public.
— Min Liang Tan (@minliangtan) April 27, 2022
The hardware specialist employs just under 1,500 people worldwide, with a turnover of 1.6 billion dollars in 2021, +33% between 2021 and 2022 thanks to the boom in PC demand, for more than 43 million profit. With those numbers, Razer is valued at $3.17 billion in the takeover bid, up from $1.6 billion in 2017 when the company went public.
Why withdraw from the stock market?
What may be seen as a punishment from the financial markets or a sign of ill health is not at all here. It is not necessarily interesting for Razer to remain listed. Listing involves several constraints: publication of accounts, compliance with the rules of the trading platform, vulnerability to market upheavals, impact of reputation on the share price, pressure from shareholders on the company’s strategy, etc.
This takeover nevertheless remains risky in the current context, with factors such as uncertainties and challenges due to geopolitical tensions and the ongoing pandemic could negatively impact its activities in the future. Not to mention the PC sector which experienced an initial deceleration with several quarters of euphoria.
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