suffolknitro
26 Dec 2014
Re: PPA Takeover? The way I have reconciled it in my mind is this:Braben personally owned the rights to Elite.In 2008, Braben gave the rights to his company Frontier, but in return, Frontier agreed to pay a percentage of royalty. This percentage went to PPA's predecessor in 2008.PPA created in 2009 and absorbed the rights due to one of the merging companies owning then from 2008.I don't know or understand the whys and hows but these are the facts as I understand them...
Squicker
24 Dec 2014
Re: PPA Takeover? Most of what you say makes sense, but it's not PPA who acquired the rights in 2008 as they did not exist, Frontier acquired them in 2008. If you look at the RNS release it's 'Company' and Company is defined in the release as being Frontier. [link] Braben gave some rights to FD in 2008, but what did he have to give if he actually only bought those rights in 2014? "Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV, "Frontier," the "Company"
, a leading developer of video games with studios in Cambridge, UK and Halifax, Canada, has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the business and assets of Professional Practice Automation LLP (“PPA”, a limited liability partnership in which David Braben is a member (the “Acquisition”. The assets to be acquired include the royalty rights in respect of the Elite video game franchise (the "Elite Royalty Rights", the benefit of which are currently held by PPA. David Braben assigned these rights to the Company in June 2008 in return for a royalty based on Frontier’s profits from the Elite video game franchise."So it's saying Braben assigned these Royalty rights to FD - 'Company' - in 2008 and yet they were actually held by PPA, and could only have been held by PPA since 2009 at the earliest, as that's when PPA were incepted. And it says Braben was expecting a royalty return on these rights and yet PPA are listed as having the benefit. It does not make any sense at all. I feel there's something important here but I can't put my finger on it and the RNS article simply does not make any sense.
suffolknitro
18 Dec 2014
Re: PPA Takeover? It is very confusing. I had to sleep on it and re-tackle the puzzle in the morning when it made a bit more sense. My thoughts on your response. Perhaps together we can solve this one!"If Braben was a member of the predecessor to PPA, he would not have to become a member this year. And he is not on the original list of members for PPA. So didn't leave at any time, he was never there, Ryan and Webster started PPA on their own and remain on their own right up to and including the 2013 annual return."PPA as a company started in 2009, from a merge between the orgnanisations that Ryan and Webster were operating previously. Perhaps Braben was involved with one of those previous organisations and was therefore not officially part of PPA after the merge?"Why would anyone give rights worth £5.09m as a 'favour'?"Back in 2008, the rights to Elite were not worth much as there was no Elite game in development, except as rumour. The previous games I doubt were drawing in great quantities of money, if any at all. The only way I can reconcile the RNS about the rights transfer is that the rights were personally held by Braben (who at the time, was involved with Ryan / Webster as well as Frontier somehow), and he gave the rights to Frontier in return for royalties from Frontier to be paid to the pre-PPA. Perhaps it was required as an asset to secure a loan or something. Ian Bell one of the original co-authors of Elite may even have a part to play."- But if we take it that Braben did in fact do that the next problem arises:Why is there no asset even approaching £5m on the PPA books for any of the years since PPA existed? PPA is essentially worthless, they are not evidenced as sitting on a 5m royalty (or anywhere near it) asset since 2008."Just because Braben paid £5m for the company, doesn't mean that they have assets to that value in their possession. This fact doesn't worry me particularly.The Frontier RNS clearly states that PPA aquired the rights from Braben in 2008, I think we can take that as fact, the whys and hows etc, are yet to be resolved. I very much doubt the rights were aquired in 2014 when Elite: Dangerous was very much "a thing" and showed extreme promise (I was playing the early Alpha builds back then).Perhaps it is a way of Braben making some money in a very round about way? Be involved with a company, take the company over with a share deal and pocket some of the money since you own part of the taken over company?My belief in what the rights were, is that they were a right to a percentage royalty to anything sold Elite relted. I don't know what that percentage could be though.All being saidh however, if Frontier now have all the rights to the name and IP, then that's a good thing. Why they didn't have them in the first place is strange, but history now.
Squicker
16 Dec 2014
Re: PPA Takeover? Thank you for trying to shed light on this: "2008 - David Braben assigned Elite rights to Frontier when he was a member of the predecessor to PPA, in return for royalty rights, that get paid to the PPA predecessor. I do not know anything about Braben's involvement with the PPA guys or why he did this (seems like a favour to me)."So I looked at this and the problem with it is three-fold:- If Braben was a member of the predecessor to PPA, he would not have to become a member this year. And he is not on the original list of members for PPA. So didn't leave at any time, he was never there, Ryan and Webster started PPA on their own and remain on their own right up to and including the 2013 annual return. - Why would anyone give rights worth £5.09m as a 'favour'?- But if we take it that Braben did in fact do that the next problem arises:Why is there no asset even approaching £5m on the PPA books for any of the years since PPA existed? PPA is essentially worthless, they are not evidenced as sitting on a 5m royalty (or anywhere near it) asset since 2008. That means the asset - the rights - must have been acquired after the last set of PPA accounts and moved quickly to Braben in the deal we see in RNS. Another issue with this is then exposed:If we look at the LLP01 form filed at companies house for making Braben a member of PPA, it was filed on 15/4/14. and yet the form says Braben became a member of PPA on 28/2/14. The Ltd Liability Partnerships Act say that membership additions must be filed within 14 days:"Registration of membership changes.(1)A limited liability partnership must ensure that—(a)where a person becomes or ceases to be a member or designated member, notice is delivered to the registrar within fourteen days, and"So either:The form was filed late and there's a breach of the Limited Liabilities Partnership ActORBraben joined on the eve of the deal with PPA for the rights and his membership was for some reason backdated. Now, I don't think it's a favour because someone else has pointed me to the PPA website and it's clear that PPA are a company that speculate(d) on rights as part of their business: "The business owns residual rights to various related software products which are sold by other businesses. " [link] up rights like this is a perfectly viable business model and the looking through Companies House timeline and lack of a pre-existing asset in the accounts of any note, makes me think that PPA picked up some form of Elite rights in early 2014late 2013 (not showing as an asset on previous yearly accounts) and sold them to Frontier as part of the partnership for £5m. That said, whatever way we slice it I cannot make head nor tail of the PPA deal. The news as published cannot be reconciled with either itself, or due process. I am still left wondering what exactly Frontier bought with PPA in terms of rights, why they bought it and why PPA had it in the first place.
suffolknitro
15 Dec 2014
Re: Who's a fan? Starting in Lave is an option 
suffolknitro
15 Dec 2014
Re: PPA Takeover? I've looked into this also. The facts as presented are:2008 - David Braben assigned Elite rights to Frontier when he was a member of the predecessor to PPA, in return for royalty rights, that get paid to the PPA predecessor. I do not know anything about Braben's involvement with the PPA guys or why he did this (seems like a favour to me).2009 - Two companies merge to form PPA. This is why PPA as an LLP didn't exist before 2009, but the components of it existed before.Early 2014 - David Braben and Wendy Irvin (who I believe he married in 2014) became members of PPA LLP citing their input to provide the games like fun, into business software. I.e. make business software far more easier to use (seems like a good thing).April 2014 - Frontier buys PPA with help from Braben's shares, and in so doing, get all the royalty rights to Elite that PPA held historically.I don't know why Brahen was involved with the PPA guys prior to the creation in 2009. Since they all Cambridge companies, I assume they know each other personally, old university buddies or something. What is interesting is that since Braben was a member of PPA LLP, when Frontier bought them, Braben would have received some of that cash, so the 4mill he gave wouldn't have been quite 4mill.All this aside, Braben is a straight up guy, he's a genuine nice character. He may have made himself some personal cash with all this, which is fine, but ultimately, all the royalties are now with Frontier, when they wern't before. This was clearly his motivation imo in becoming a member of PPA LLP in April, although the RNS does state that he was involved in since 2008.It's a bit murky, but ultimately leads to good things for Frontier and its share price when the game launches tomorrow. btw - I've been playing it since Alpha, and it is fracking awesome!
Squicker
12 Dec 2014
PPA Takeover? I've started to pay more attention to the FD shares lately, in the run up to releasing their game. Does anyone have information about the FD takeover of Professional Practise Automation. From what I can make out on the PPA website, they have a sideline speculatively buying up rights and selling them on, and at some point they must have bought somethe rights to Elite. Does anyone know when they bought these rights? I see that PPA are sold for £5m but if you look at their prior year's accounts they do not show an asset on the books for £5m, or even near it. So they must have procured the rights within the last year, and yet the RNS article on the matter says Braben transferred rights to PPA in 2008. Also, PPA didn't exist until 2009. I find this matter confusing and wonder if any investors can help shed light on the timeline, or what happened in general?
Squicker
12 Dec 2014
Re: Price Fall? Yes, that's a reasonable explanation, thank you.
fortunatas
05 Dec 2014
Re: Price Fall? picking up, as the amount of shares is relatively small, it seems purchases up or down can cause fairly hefty MM induced price swings
Squicker
05 Dec 2014
Price Fall? What's hurting the share price lately? Is it the collective action against Frontier to obtain refunds due to the sudden dropping of offline mode from the game?Certainly seems like a bad move on their part so close to release.
