OnLive Assets Sell For Only $4.8 Million

OnLive launches a cloud-based gaming company that many people expected to change the face of gaming away from consoles to Internet streamed video games. The company promised more than just casual games such as Tetris or Farmville. OnLive streamed full versions of many popular PC games directly to your PC including FPS titles and more. The problem for OnLive was that subscriber numbers never lived up to the hype the company generated at launch.

Ultimately, OnLive went bankrupt and fired most of its employees a few months ago. Documents have surfaced that show assets owned by OnLive, including patents and intellectual property, were purchased by a company called Lauder Partners for only $4.8 million. That price is approximately $14 million less than OnLive assets were said to be worth.

The letter was written by Joel Weinberger, the CEO of Insolvency Services Group, the company tasked with handling the sale of OnLive assets. The letter was confirmed to be legitimate by Insolvency Services Group legal representatives. OnLive said of the low-priced sale, "When planned financing didn't work out, the company was left with few options."

The estimated worth of OnLive's assets was $18.7 million. Lauder Partners seems to have gotten themselves quite a deal. If OnLive is able to transform itself into a service that can be successful and profitable remains to be seen. OnLive was acquired by Lauder Partners in August after it formed into a new company and laid off the majority of its staff.

"Had the sale to the buyer not taken place, the assignee would have been left with inadequate capital to fund the significant costs to preserve and market OnLive's patents and other intellectual property, thus greatly reducing expected recoveries essentially to those of a forced piecemeal auction," said Weinberg in the letter.

[via Gamesindustry.biz]