This is a truly dark story about some events in the videogame industry where criminals exploit an otherwise very clean industry. This has tragically led to several people in the industry loosing their jobs as well as enormous financial losses. I' ve tried to make a gist of the article in english (original article is in Swedish) but if you' re interested in the full story I suggest you try finding it somewhere else. I sadly don' t know of any sites where this might be available in english.
According to swedish news paper Dagens Nyheter' s website
www.dn.se the men behind the Gizmondo (Tiger Telematics), Carl Freer and Stefan Eriksson, have been arrested in the U.S.
Before they started Tiger Telematics Inc they were wanted criminals in Sweden for tax evasion and before that they had been convicted for other crimes, such as drug dealing, illegal possession of weapons and drunk driving.
But somehow they managed to convince foreign markets that they were legitimate bussinessmen.
They started a company called Eagle Eye Scandinavia Distribution Ltd in the U.K. in 1999 and focused on selling gps-equipment to companies that used lots of vehicles such as taxi companies and similar. The company claimed they had gotten a big order from Finland which made the stock rates rise and the company was sold for stocks in an US company worth 25 million SEK (swedish kronor, visit Forex.com).
But in reality the company had never gotten the order from Finland.
The company the two men had purchased, Floor Decors based in Florida, was selling floor carpets which wasn' t in Carl Freer' s interest. What he wanted was the companys position in the stock exchange market.
He then renamed the company to Tiger Telematics Inc.
To make the stock rates rise he had to come up with an interesting product and this was the Gizmondo.
They opened main offices in the U.K. with smaller offices around the world.
They begun ordering parts from several hardware companies and purchased the U.K. developer Warthog to make sure the Gizmondo would get software.
All these investments made the stocks rise and several investors believed in Tiger Telematics, among them the founder of Icon Medialabs Johan Staël von Holstein, who is now running a company called Icube. In the end the company was almost worth 1 billion US$ and they stated that the company had gotten pre-orders of about 500 000 units.
Now that the company had lots of money Carl Freer and Stefan Eriksson gave themselves insanely high salaries and well payed jobs to their friends and familly. A couple of their friends where famous in Sweden, to the police that is. Three of the highest ranked men in the Tiger Telematics company had previously been involved with organised crime in Uppsala, Sweden.
In 2005 the Swedish news paper Aftonbladet exposed these three and Freer which made all four leave their posts as executives.
But their defections couldn' t save the bad reputation Gizmondo had gotten and Gizmondo was soon believed to be involved with organised crime and many wondered if Tiger Telematics where attending their affairs correctly.
When the Gizmondo was released it flopped completely and the previously stated pre-orders of 500 000 units turned out to be fake.
During the entire year of 2005 the company didn' t make enough profit to even cover the leasing expenses for the directors' cars (Ferrari).
Now the stocks are worth about 1 cent compared to 30$ when it was at its highest.
The brittish daughter company (Gizmondo) have gone bankrupt with debts of about 25 million £ and 230 people have lost their jobs, among them about 50 videogame developers in Sweden
.
The Gizmondo and the company that created it are gone as well as millions of dollars, job opportunities and the dignity of the videogame industry.
Some of you might remember reading that some swedish big shot crashed a Ferrari, which was cut in two peaces, in Los Angeles in februari 2006. The guy driving was Gizmondo guy Eriksson.
Carl Freer and Stefan Eriksson have been involved with several other types of suspicious activity after the Gizmondo such as starting their own police force in Los Angeles (yes, you can do that there).
Lately they have started a company called Xero Mobile which bought the american company Desi TV just a couple of weeks ago.
Keep a close eye on Xero mobile as we might see the same outcome, or even worse, as with Tiger Telematics.
My english isn' t exactly 100% so there might be some errors in my text. If you find anything that sounds wrong, please let me know.
If you find the same information in english on another site, please post the link.
< Message edited by ginjirou -- 29 Apr 06 19:30:48 >