Sega and Sammy Merge

Sammy, the Japanese game publisher and pachinko machine manufacturer is set to merge with Sega, by acquiring the remaining 78% of Sega’s stock that it doesn’t already own.

A merger was proposed last year, but went sour when Sega rejected it.

Hajime Satomi, president of Sammy had announced some months that there were a number of options on what the two companies’ relationship would be, but it looks like a holding company will buy up all shares in both organisations.

Sega has had a good year so far, doubling its income in the first quarter of the year to 8.8 billion Yen (€64.5 million). Sega’s arcade and software businesses have been doing well, and the company has thrived since its decision to get out of the console market.

Sammy is possibly best known round these parts for the Guilty Gear series of 2D beat-em-ups and the Atmoiswave range of arcade cabinets.

Sammy Atomiswave

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?