Dark Horse, the Milwaukie-based comic book publisher, said Tuesday it would be sold to the Swedish video game company Embracer Group.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, which is set to be finalized early next year.
They said operations at Dark Horse would continue as usual after the acquisition, led by founder and CEO Mike Richardson, and that there were no plans to restructure the business.
“I’ve had a number of compelling conversations with Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors and I’m very impressed with him and what he and his team have built,” Richardson said in a statement. “I have to say, the future for our company has never looked brighter.”
Richardson and Chief Operating Officer Neil Hankerson owned 20% of the company’s shares, while the rest belonged to a Chinese investor, the companies said. Vanguard Visionary Associates of Hong Kong had acquired a majority stake in Dark Horse in 2018.
Founded in 1986, Dark Horse owns the comic series The Mask, Time Cop, Father’s Day and Ghost. It also publishes comics under titles it’s licensed, including Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Stranger Things and Witcher. It regularly ranks among the top five comic publishers by market share, competing with a cluster of smaller companies in an industry led by Marvel and DC Comics.
It also operates an entertainment unit for producing TV shows and movies based on the company’s titles. Dark Horse Entertainment produced the films “The Mask,” “Timecop,” and “Hellboy” and its sequels, as well as the series The Umbrella Academy and Resident Alien.
And a retail operation, Things From Another World, operates three stores stores and sells online.
In all, the companies said Dark Horse had 300 properties to mine across entertainment media, and they said Embracer was interested in the potential for new video games based on some of Dark Horse’s comic series.
Embracer is a holding company whose subsidiaries — Dark Horse would be the 10th — operate independently.
Dark Horse is expected to generate $98.7 million in sales in 2021, the companies disclosed. It employs 181 in Milwaukie and Los Angeles.
-- Elliot Njus
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