Koch Media

Koch Media GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1994
Seat	Höfen (Tyrol) , Austria
management	Klemens Kundratitz (Managing Director) Reinhard Gratl (Managing Director)
Number of employees	approx. 800 (2016)
sales	approx. 300 million EUR (2013)
Branch	multimedia
Website	www.kochmedia.com

Koch Media is a media company founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The group (Koch Media Holding ), headquartered in Höfen, is an international producer and marketer of PC and console games, infotainment CDs, software and films on DVD and Blu-ray . In addition, there are also own cinema licenses in the program. Koch Media is a subsidiary of the Swedish Embracer Group .

history

The foundation of Koch Media Holding, Höfen (Tyrol) , Koch Media Germany, Switzerland and Austria and Koch Media Ltd. England took place in 1994. Koch Media's first products were limited to the release of music on CD . The first software title distributed by Koch Media was a simulation of the Semmering Railway . In 1997, Koch Media set up its own distribution warehouse (next to the central warehouse in Höfen) in England. A year later, the company entered e-business and founded the media-e.com division in Germany and Austria. 2001 Koch Media srl ​​was opened in Italy and in the following year the own game label Deep Silver was founded as a business division of Koch Media. In 2005 the existing French company SG Diffusion was bought and on January 1, 2006 it was converted into Koch Media SAS, based in Paris, France.

Deep Silver Inc. was founded in the USA in 2008 and the sales company PROEIN SL, which was taken over in Spain in the same year , has been operating under the name Koch Media SLU since the beginning of 2009. In July 2009, Koch Media opened a new Benelux office .

On February 14, 2018, the Swedish computer game company THQ Nordic announced that it would buy Koch Media for 121 million euros. The new owner promised to continue to operate the company independently, to maintain existing employment relationships and to continue games under development. In February 2019 Koch announced the takeover of the developer Warhorse Studios for 33.2 million euros. In the same month Koch Media took over the Australian publisher 18point2 to strengthen its presence in the Australian computer games market. In 2019, the Italian racing game specialist Milestone was taken over.

Business areas

The business areas of Koch Media extend in particular to the following areas:

• In the software sector , Koch Media sells products from manufacturers such as Kaspersky Lab , Lexware , Pinnacle Systems , Digital Publishing , Linguatec , the Academic Working Group and many other companies.
• In the field of computer games , Koch Media operates under its premium label Deep Silver . Koch Media also markets the products of other computer game manufacturers in Europe as a distributor.
• In 2003, Koch Media also entered the DVD sector with the home entertainment business . The focus was originally on film classics and rarely shown genre films. Meanwhile, numerous television series (including King of Queens , McLeod's Daughters , Catweazle , Dr. Quinn - a passionate doctor , Kimba , Farscape , Alone Against the Mafia , Sliders , Hulk , The Seven Million Dollar Woman ) and first publications to the range. As early as 2007, a Koch Media film hit German cinemas for the first time with Tödliche Decision .
• Anime , through the KSM takeover, Koch Media gains access to the anime market. KSM is one of the Big 5 anime publishers in Germany.

structure

Branches

Koch Media has its own national branches in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy (since 2000), England, France (since October 2005), the USA (since April 2008) and since July 2008 with the takeover of the sales company PROEIN SL from SCi Entertainment Group represented in Spain. In February 2009, Koch Media Nordics was founded as a sales and marketing branch in Scandinavia . In July 2009 Koch Media opened a branch in Benelux .

Deep Silver

→ Main article : Deep Silver

Is a subsidiary and label for Koch Media's activities in the field of computer games . Shortly after the founding of Koch Media and the first experiences with the distribution of user software, the company also added CD-ROM games to its portfolio. In 2002, Koch Media finally founded its own games label, Deep Silver, and has increasingly developed its own brands since then. At the same time, Deep Silver also takes on the distribution of products from other manufacturers on the European market.

In January 2013, when the insolvent US publisher THQ was broken up after an auction , the company took over the development studio Volition and its game series Saints Row as well as the rights to Metro: Last Light . Koch Media also entered the mobile game business with the acquisition of the Hamburg developer studio Fishlabs and in 2014 acquired the Homefront brand and all associated assets as well as the British developer studio from Crytek, which was commissioned with the further development of the series . The studio has been operating as Deep Silver Dambuster Studios ever since .

Koch Films

Koch Films, based in Planegg , is a film rental and home entertainment distributor of Koch Media GmbH. It acquires national and international film and series licenses and evaluates them in the cinema, TV, VoD and DVD / Blu-Ray. Koch Films has offices in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and the USA. The offer extends to animes , documentaries, series, arthouse films and mainstream films. The Koch Films portfolio includes Lady Macbeth and Emergency Call California . Koch Films partly uses its own name for the publications and partly the label KSM, which is now part of Koch Films, with its sub-labels. Koch Films not only sells its own license portfolio, but also takes on the distribution of external label brands.

Koch Films was founded in 2003 as a division of Koch Media Holding under the name Koch Media Home Entertainment . In 2006 Koch Media Licensing GmbH was founded, which carries out the label's licensing business. From 2009 Koch Media entered the film segment internationally, including films and series in Italy and Great Britain. In 2015, Koch Media Licensing GmbH was renamed to Koch Films GmbH . In December 2019 Koch Films took over the company RG Vision GmbH, based in Mainz. Koch Films thus also took over the anime and merchandise shop Anime Planet. The shop was declared the official KSM anime shop, but kept its name. In the same month, RG-Vision was incorporated into Koch Films GmbH.

KSM

KSM is a label of Koch Films and was founded in 2003 as an independence publishing company under the name KSM Krause & Schneider Multimedia and legal form of an OHG in Hochheim am Main . In 2006 the name was changed to KSM and the legal form changed to GmbH . The company headquarters were relocated to Wiesbaden in 2010 . KSM's portfolio includes animes , documentaries, series and films. KSM has been selling Animes in its portfolio since 2007 and has established itself in second place in the Big 5 of German anime publishers with the KSM Anime label founded in 2014. KSM GmbH was bought by Koch Films in August 2019 and merged into it in December 2019. Since then, the name KSM has only existed as a Koch Films label. The KSM label has several sub-labels with KSM Anime, New KSM, New KSM Cinema and KSM Klassiker.

Web links

• Official website of Koch Media GmbH
• Official website of Koch Films GmbH
• Official website of the KSM label

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Embracer Group (ed.): Embracer AGM Presentation . S. 9 (English, embracer.com [PDF; 31.8 MB ; accessed on September 22, 2019]).
2. ↑ Mareike Haus: Koch Media enters the DVD business. In: blickpunktfilm.de. June 12, 2003, accessed March 4, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Daniel Herbig: THQ Nordic buys Koch Media for 121 million euros. In: heise.de. Retrieved on February 14, 2018 (German). 
4. ↑ Elena Schulz: Koch Media buys Warhorse - Kingdom Come studio changes hands. In: Gamestar . February 13, 2019, accessed October 4, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Brittany Vincent: THQ Nordic acquires Australian publisher 18point2. In: Shack News. February 14, 2019, accessed October 4, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Koch Media acquires Milestone. In: Gamesmarkt. August 14, 2019, accessed October 4, 2019 . 
7. ↑ RocketsSnorlax: Koch Films takes over KSM. In: anisearch.de. Retrieved on August 14, 2019 (German). 
8. ↑ Sebastian Jäger: SEGA takes over Relic, Koch Media Volition and Metro, Ubisoft South Park * Update * . In: Gamona . Webguidez Entertainment. January 23, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
9. ↑ Koch Media takes over the insolvent games company Fishlabs - without the founders. In: Gründerszene. December 6, 2013, accessed October 4, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Crytek sells Homefront and its studio to Koch Media. In: golem.de. July 30, 2014, accessed on August 14, 2019 (German). 
11. ↑ Stefan Kapelari, Koch Media: "You have to be ready to reinvent yourself". In: blickpunktfilm.de. August 12, 2015, accessed March 4, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Robin Hirsch: Koch Media takes over online shop »Anime Planet«. In: Anime2You. December 12, 2019, accessed March 4, 2020 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b} Merger: KSM GmbH, RG-Vision GmbH. In: NorthData. December 21, 2019, accessed March 4, 2020 .  
14. ^ Extract from the commercial register - KSM Krause & Schneider Multimedia OHG. In: online-handelsregister.de. Wiesbaden Commercial Register, accessed on March 1, 2020 . 
15. ^ Extract from the commercial register - KSM GmbH. In: online-handelsregister.de. Wiesbaden Commercial Register, accessed on March 1, 2020 . 
16. ↑ Endymion: KSM GmbH becomes Koch Films GmbH. In: Anime Sushi. February 29, 2020, accessed February 29, 2020 .