Eidos Plc, the London, UK games software company, is paying 34m pounds ($55m) for a 19.9% shareholding in Maximum Holdings Inc, a Los Angeles, California-based company that sells interactive games and music from its entertainment portal site. The move is billed by Eidos as a key development in its internet strategy. It claims that, as a publisher and content owner, it has little scope to develop on a standalone basis.
Under the deal, Eidos will enter into a series of non-exclusive agreements with Maximum covering topics such as cross-promotion and advertising. This, it says, will allow it to benefit from the growth of the internet as a medium for the interactive games market. Maximum, which targets game players in the 10-30 age range, claims to have 3.5 million unique visitors a month at its portal and related web sites.
