Splash Damage bought by dodgy Chinese chicken farmer?

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The Financial Times has a marvellous article on what it calls “a strong contender for the weirdest deal of 2016”, the acquistion by Leyou, a Chinese poultry farmer, of Splash Damage, the Bromley, UK-based developer of Wolfenstein, Enemy Territory and Brink, for $150 million.

Not only is the deal surprising in its own right (raising chickens and making first-person shooters not being obvious bedfellows) but it has raised alarm bells from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange about a reverse takeover, amidst strange dealings by senior management and shareholders of Leyou.

The full post digs into disappearing profits, “arms-length” transactions to sell the poultry business to the wife of the founder and the confusion about how a loss-making Chinese poultry farmer can become a global F2P game developer in short order. It is very much worth a read.