SEGA Appoints Sammy's Hajime Satomi as Their Chairman

[Lazy8s]

TOKYO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Japanese game developer Sega Corp named Hajime Satomi its chairman on Tuesday, thrusting the chief executive of Sammy Corp into a management role after his company became Sega's top shareholder in December.

Sammy, Japan's biggest maker of slot machines, acquired a 22 percent stake in Sega for 45 billion yen ($427 million) in order to use Sega's strong brand and library of hit games to boost its own presence in the arcade game market.

Satomi, 62, who owns nearly 25 percent of Sammy, had said he wanted to join Sega's board of directors as soon as possible, so he could play a role in management.

He replaces Hideki Sato, who becomes vice chairman.

Sega President Hisao Oguchi remains the company's figurehead, but Satomi also maintains representative rights. Shareholders approved the decision earlier on Tuesday.

Satomi told Reuters in an interview in December that Sammy was considering a number of options for Sega, including possibly setting up a holding company or a full merger, but that he needed to get on the board first...

http://www.reuters.com/financeQuote...369689&ric=7964.T&infotype=news&compname=SEGA

With SEGA finally getting definite direction from their major stakeholder again in Sammy, something CSK waffled about towards the end, the company can at last get out from under the cloud of uncertainty that's contributed to keeping investors at bay. Sammy and SEGA can work together really well considering each of their plans for expansion really benefit from the other's strengths.

This shareholder voting here was really just a formality, which was the only reason I helped present a balance and voted Against the appointment of their two officials. This SEGA-Sammy relationship should turn out to be a beneficial one for the regrowing arcade industry.

 

[Tagrineth]

I, for one, am happy this has happened.

Sega has recently been all but destroyed by mis-management, above anything else (they've more or less followed a similar financial progression to 3dfx's, albeit a whole lot slower, and they did last long enough to recover)...

 

[Guden Oden]

I just think it's a bit sad to see a legendary arcade company like Sega run by a bunch of pachinko machine hustlers... Okay, so it may be for the best after all, I don't really know, but by golly it doesn't mean I have to like it!