Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is buying 3DO Co’s hardware systems business for $20m in cash. The sale completes 3DO’s hardware sell off and transformation into a console game software company announced last September (CI No 3,000). The deal was touted as a joint venture in January of this year (CI No 3089), but a sale transaction was deemed better for both companies because we could each be more focused on our key competencies, 3DO said. Samsung will form a new company in Silicon Valley focusing on multimedia systems and semiconductor products. Around 75 staff now in 3DO’s hardware systems business will be offered jobs in the Samsung set-up. 3DO farmed its M2 games system out to Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co Ltd last year in a $100m agreement as part of its shift out of hardware.
