Phenomedia

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Phenomedia AG
legal form Corporation
founding 1999
resolution 2002
Reason for dissolution Financial scandal
Seat Bochum - Wattenscheid
management Markus Scheer, CEO

The Phenomedia AG was a company based in Bochum district of Wattenscheid , which among other things, computer games and games for mobile phones produced. It was one of the best-known representatives of the German New Economy and was listed in the Neuer Markt segment . Fueled by fake balance sheets and the success of the computer game Moorhuhn , the company experienced an enormous increase in value by 2002. After the financial scandal was uncovered, the company slipped into bankruptcy and was wound up. Many core activities, including grouse rights, went to the newly founded Phenomedia publishing GmbH. After the GmbH was liquidated in 2017, the brand went to ak tronic Software & Services GmbH .

history

Founding until the IPO

The company was founded by 22-year-old Markus Scheer, previously a partner in the insolvent German game developer Starbyte , and other partners as the Art Department Advertising Agency GmbH. The Art Department created and oversaw the development of advertising games such as Das Telekommando Returns ( Deutsche Telekom ), DMSO Secret Project ( Merckle ), Dark Shades (three parts, Federal Ministry of the Interior ), Captain Zins ( Dresdner Bank ) or Bi-Fi Roll: Action in Hollywood ( BiFi ). In addition, Art Department had a subsidiary with Greenwood Entertainment , which was specialized in the production of full-price games, especially management simulations such as Der Pler . The best known, however, was the short advertising game Moorhuhnjagd , which was developed in 1998 together with Witan for the whiskey brand Johnnie Walker and which spread enormously through viral marketing .

Art Department was part of the Funsoft Group for a time until it became independent again in 1997 through a management buyout .

Financial scandal and bankruptcy

In 1999, Art Department was renamed Phenomedia and floated on the stock exchange. With a reported annual turnover of 4.8 million euros and a comparatively small portfolio of advertising and computer games, the company collected the equivalent of around 22 million euros. In the years that followed, the company's share price rose rapidly, largely influenced by the success of the Moorhuhn franchise. The stock market value , which reached around 400 million euros in the course of the dot-com bubble in the spring of 2000 , was based on fictitious figures. In the 1999 to 2001 annual financial statements, non-existent sales and receivables were posted. The irregularities became known in April 2002. When the auditors of KPMG refused to give a certificate for the 2001 financial statements, CEO Markus Scheer and CFO Björn Denhard admitted the manipulation to the supervisory board and reported themselves to the public prosecutor. A special audit by the auditors from Warth & Klein showed that the turnover stated at 25.8 million euros for the 2001 financial year was only 17 million euros. The loss reported for the period 1999 to 2001 was therefore not EUR 4.3 million, but EUR 29.8 million. In addition, there were investments without the prior approval of the supervisory board and due diligence . The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) also alleged insider trading . The process against the two board members and other managers began on November 2, 2004. In 2009, the Bochum regional court sentenced the two former board members to three years and ten months (Scheer) and three years (Denhard) imprisonment for falsifying accounts, credit fraud and breach of trust, of which the court immediately remitted 15 months due to the long duration of the hearing. Both had fully admitted their misconduct towards the end of the trial. Markus Scheer was quoted in the reporting as saying: “We played a game. Monopoly - but with real money ”.

Logo of phenomedia publishing GmbH

The financial scandal means the end for the company. Graphic artist Ingo Mesche, who had designed the Moorhuhn, terminated the contracts with Phenomedia due to non-compliance with license payments amounting to 8% of sales and initially raised a legal claim to the Moorhuhn. He later agreed a severance payment with the company. The value of the share, which at its peak was 90 euros, fell to 85 cents. In July 2002 Phenomedia was excluded from trading on the stock exchange, as neither a certified annual financial statement nor the two necessary supervisory banks could be presented. On August 1, 2002, insolvency proceedings were opened at the Bochum district court and Phenomedia was dissolved. The insolvency administrator Wulf-Gerd Joneleit sold the remaining assets in order to settle the company's debts. Nevertheless, a complete satisfaction of the creditors was not possible. The core business of computer game development, including the Moorhuhn license and the last remaining 35 employees, was sold to a German-Dutch investor group led by long-term sales partner ak tronic Software & Services. On July 1, 2004, it was transferred to a newly founded rescue company, phenomedia publishing GmbH. This endeavored under the new managing director Helge Borgarts to a strict demarcation from its predecessor. In 2004 the company made a profit again. The development studio Piranha Bytes became independent (organized in Pluto 13 GmbH) and took over the license of the computer role-playing game Gothic . The subsidiary Mobile Scope, which specializes in mobile games, also became independent through a management buyout.

rating

With the Moorhuhn, the company created a prime example of successful viral marketing. The game magazine Gamona described it as "the father and mother of casual games - and of the free-to-play wave at the same time". The game succeeded for the first time on a large scale in getting large sections of the population enthusiastic about computer games.

Phenomedia's accounting scandal was portrayed as symptomatic of the customs on the Neuer Markt and placed in a row with the scandals and cases of fraud involving the companies Comroad , EM.TV and Infomatec . Out of pure pursuit of profit, all visible signs of the discrepancies had been ignored and, in the belief in a new economy that followed entirely new rules, tried and tested company rules had been ignored. The supervisory board also failed in its control function. Ex-board member Scheer was portrayed in the reporting as too young and overwhelmed by the expectations of the Neuer Markt in relation to his own process statements. He understood difficulties only as "short-term irritations" and believed that "the visions would prevail". Scheer, in turn, described himself as a victim of the system and blamed banks and consultants for having showered the company with money and, for example, prevented him from appointing senior management.

Studios

The Phenomedia included the Bochum game development studio Greenwood Entertainment , which was successful in the 1990s with business simulations such as Der Pler and licensed products for the Sat 1 sports program ran . The development studio Piranha Bytes , founded out of Greenwood Entertainment, also belonged to Phenomedia, which was continued independently in the course of the bankruptcy proceedings in 2002 through a management buy-out .

literature

  • Volker H. Peemöller, Stefan Hofmann: Accounting scandals: offenses and countermeasures . Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-503-09031-0 , p. 114-116 ( Google Books ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Frenkel: Neuer Markt: Born to be gunned down . In: The time . October 2, 2002, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed April 25, 2016]).
  2. ↑ : Special auditor confirms falsification of accounts at Phenomedia. In: www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Cf. Wolfgang Berke / Jan Zweyer : Manipulated Moorhuhn-Bilanzen. Stock exchange fraud with Phenomedia AG . In: This: Really criminal. The spectacular falls from the Ruhr area . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0705-8 , p. 82f.
  4. ^ A b SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Balance sheet falsification: Moorhuhn maker gets almost four years imprisonment. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Peemöller / Hofman 2005, p. 115
  6. ↑ Ruhr-Nachrichten of February 14th, 2009: One could already despair , Bochum local section of the Witten edition
  7. ↑ a b Bernd Kiesewetter: Ex-Managers of the Moorhuhn get long prison sentences. In: WAZ. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Phenomedia no longer has Moorhuhn rights - computerwoche.de. In: www.computerwoche.de. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  9. ↑ heise online: The "Moorhuhn" has a new home. In: heise online. Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b c : 'Moorhuhn' makers at Phenomedia shake off the past. In: www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Jürgen Stahl: Phenomedia from Bochum wants to build on Moorhuhn's success with “Play a Deal”. In: WAZ. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  12. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Computer game Moorhuhn: Dead people cackle longer. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved April 26, 2016 .
  13. ↑ 15 years of Piranha Bytes: The German cult developer of Gothic and Risen in retrospect - Is Gothic 5 coming? In: PC GAMES HARDWARE ONLINE. Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  14. ^ Moorhuhn - 10 years Moorhuhn - review of a game phenomenon - gamona.de. In: gamona.de. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Ex-grouse managers go to jail . In: Welt Online . February 13, 2009 ( welt.de [accessed April 27, 2016]).
  16. ↑ FOCUS Online: prison sentences for million gamblers. In: FOCUS Online. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  17. ^ Moorhuhn trial: "What was done on the Neuer Markt was completely crazy" - manager magazin. In: manager magazin. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .