Some time ago, Empire, a British studio received some bids for the acquisition of the studio. They even said that they are in “advanced discussions” with one bidder. Now we can tell you almost for sure that the bidder is SCi, the same that bought Eidos some time ago.

After the acquisition of Eidos last year and raising its revenues since then, they announced that want to raise GBP 17.4 million for acquisitions through a share placement.

The announcement comes when Tomb Raider:Legend is on the shelves and is on the top10 sold games this month.

It seems that the acquisitions would be aimed at giving SCi an entry into the casual games market. Although Empire is no publisher of casual games, it still does have some key products on its catalogue which fit that bracket, including updated versions of Space Invaders and a Sudoku title endorsed by TV celebrity Carol Vorderman.

The timing is certainly in SCi’s favor, as it is currently well-positioned on the markets to raise money for this kind of acquisition - having already succeeded in integrating a much larger company into its operations, and enjoying considerable commercial success with a headline product.

However, some industry insiders have expressed concerns over whether a further acquisition would overstretch SCi’s management - with the firm’s small team of top managers already said to be overburdened with managing the combined SCi / Eidos.

I wish SCi good luck and keep up the good job boys.