Peripherals Company Mad Catz Removed from New York Stock Exchange

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Peripherals Company Mad Catz Removed from New York Stock Exchange

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1391/1391843.jpgThe financial struggles of Mad Catz continue as the company is delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Mad Catz has been around from a long time. It's well known for its third-party controllers, Tritton headsets, and of course, for designing Rock Band peripherals. Of late, it's also been known for its financial struggles. Early last year, some of its executives resigned [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166346-CEO-Chariman-of-Mad-Catz-Resign], and the company laid off 37 percent of its work force. The blame for the layoffs at that time was placed on lower-than-expected sales of Rock Band 4, a game which the company not only manufactured peripherals for, but also co-published. In September of 2016, Mad Catz sold the Saitek brand to Logitech for $13 million.

Earlier this year, the company was warned that it was in danger of being dropped from the New York Stock Exchange due to its low share price. In a letter to investors sent back in January, the company said, "Due to the company's current low selling share price, the company's continued listing...is contingent upon the company effecting a share consolidation or otherwise demonstrating a sustained improvement in its share price within the next six months." Mad Catz was considering a reverse stock split, but it never happened.

Trading of the company's shares was suspended last week, when the per share price fell to $0.04, and on Friday, the company was delisted [https://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2017/03/24/mad-catz-delisted-nyse/] from the NYSE due to "an abnormally low trading price." Mad Catz does not plan to appeal its delisting.

This is obviously not good news for the long-time peripheral company, which will probably need to find a new investor or investors to keep the company from declaring bankruptcy.



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[ima420r]

https://youtu.be/aQxb-FtFj1o

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

In the age of Amazon, this is going to keep happening. GameStop announced they're closing 150 stores. Every time I go into the one where I live, less space is used for actual games and and they have more T-Shirts, keychains, funkos, geek mugs and figurines than ever. Now there's only the Nintendo Switch games near the entrance and literally every other console's shelf space is in the back corner.

Digital markets are taking big amounts of sales away too. Less people who buy physical games from specialized stores, the less people who buy peripherals. You can't put out sub-par stuff like Mad Catz is known for in this day and age. The specialized game store is going away soon. They don't do anything a Wal-Mart can't except certain pre-order incentives and even then they're not anything to run home about.

 

[Aerosteam]

They used a Z for pluralisation. Just by that it was obvious they weren't going to last forever.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The writing was on the wall when they sold Saitek for a few million.

Saitek controllers were (almost literally) the only thing from Mad Catz that anyone bought, even then they were known as much for spotty reliability and fantastically messy construction when you take them apart.

Oh well, a crappy company making crappy products goes bust, it happens.

 

[Saltyk]

I learned a long time ago not to buy third party hardware for my consoles. Had a memory card with multiple cards of space that went and deleted every file on it without warning. Never bought anything that wasn't official after that.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Adios, Mad Catz. You served me well, that one time I bought a bright pink transparent Xbox controller that clicked louder than a socially anxious skeleton. You taught me everything I needed to know about 3rd party peripherals.

 

[Dach]

I learned a long time ago not to buy third party hardware for my consoles

There are plenty of third party hardware for systems that either exceeds first party quality per dollar OR covers design space that the manufacturer won't (charging cradles, wireless controllers for wired consoles).

Notably, the Afterglow controllers for X360 and PS3 have impressed me. I had 3 first party PS3 controllers all die on me in about two years(two from dead sticks and one from broken trigger spring, though I was able to combine hardware to get one working controller). My Afterglow PS3s are going ~6 years old now and work perfectly. I did finally had to bin a X360 afterglow (for analog drift) that was my primary 360 and PC controller since before I got my 360.

 

[Leg End]

I learned a long time ago not to buy third party hardware for my consoles

There are plenty of third party hardware for systems that either exceeds first party quality per dollar OR covers design space that the manufacturer won't (charging cradles, wireless controllers for wired consoles).

Notably, the Afterglow controllers for X360 and PS3 have impressed me. I had 3 first party PS3 controllers all die on me in about two years(two from dead sticks and one from broken trigger spring, though I was able to combine hardware to get one working controller). My Afterglow PS3s are going ~6 years old now and work perfectly. I did finally had to bin a X360 afterglow (for analog drift) that was my primary 360 and PC controller since before I got my 360.

You've kind of just convinced me to buy one because the first party PS3 controllers have only given me hell.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The writing was on the wall when they sold Saitek for a few million.

Saitek was pretty much the only thing Mad Catz had that anyone would buy at that point.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Digital markets are taking big amounts of sales away too. Less people who buy physical games from specialized stores, the less people who buy peripherals.

 

[Dach]

snip

You've kind of just convinced me to buy one because the first party PS3 controllers have only given me hell.

Do be aware that the stick layout is like a 360 controller. Also the wireless is IR via a dongle. Also no battery meter.

I own this version:
http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/accessories/ps3-afterglow-wireless-control/92676
There is an older wired version and a newer revision, neither of which I have used.

Alternatively, my friend got these (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XPVV2KP?psc=1) ~7 months ago and aside from some slightly off shell sizing (there's a noticeable lip), they seem perfect clones of 1st party controllers.

 

[Mortuorum]

On the plus side, you could now be a major Mad Catz shareholder for about the cost of a Happy Meal.