• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Digital Domain CEO resigns, DD Port St. Lucie Florida studio to shut down

Status
Not open for further replies.

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/digital-domain-media-group-initiates-144600478.html

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Digital Domain Media Group, Inc. (DDMG) today announced that it has initiated a strategic realignment that will enable it to focus its resources on its core business, Digital Domain Productions, Inc., a company focused on creating digital visual effects, CG animation and digital production for the entertainment and advertising industries. As a key part of this strategic realignment, DDMG has begun the cessation of its Port St. Lucie operations by reducing virtually its entire Port St. Lucie workforce, retaining approximately 20 employees who will remain as part of the wind-down.

DDMG’s studios in California and Vancouver intend to continue to operate without interruption, as will the Digital Domain Institute, based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Long-time Digital Domain executive Ed Ulbrich has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Digital Domain Productions.

Digital Domain Productions is working closely with its clients, vendors and other critical constituencies throughout this process.


DDMG is implementing this important operational change and will continue to evaluate various restructuring alternatives, as previously disclosed, as part of its effort to reduce its overhead and restructure its long-term debt

As previously announced, DDMG is continuing to work with the holders of its senior secured convertible notes, each of whom has agreed to forbear temporarily from exercising its remedies under such senior notes until such time as it elects to withdraw such forbearance on not less than 48 hours’ advance notice to DDMG. An inability by DDMG to quickly access additional sources of liquidity to fund its current operating cash needs would materially adversely affect its financial condition and would require it to seek relief or protection from its creditors.

John C. Textor has resigned, effective immediately, from his positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of DDMG, as a member of the Board of Directors of DDMG, and from all positions as an officer and director with all subsidiaries of DDMG.


Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include comments about the Company's plans, prospects, strategies and future performance. They are made on the basis of our management’s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions regarding future events and business performance as of the time the statements are made. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside the Company’s control. These could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements.

Such differences may result from actions taken by the Company, as well as from developments beyond the Company’s control, including, but not limited to: price volatility of the Company’s common stock; changes in domestic and global economic conditions, competitive conditions and consumer preferences; our dependence on a limited number of large projects each year, and the timing of revenue flows from those projects; developments in the status of strategic initiatives taken by the Company; audience acceptance of feature films we may co-produce; and rapid technological developments, including new forms of entertainment.

Further information on these and other factors and risks that could affect our business is included in filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. These documents are available on the SEC Filings subsection of the Investors section of the Company’s website at: http://www.ddmg.co.

Information on our website is not part of this press release. All information provided in this press release is as of September 7, 2012, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly the information contained in this press release, or any forward-looking statements, to reflect new information, events or circumstances, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Not surprising after news earlier this week when they had announced they defaulted on six loans:

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region...-receives-an-extension-on-35-million-in-loans

PORT ST. LUCIE — Digital Domain Media Group announced Wednesday it received an extension on $35 million in loans.

The company has an undisclosed amount of time to finalize a deal that would satisfy its lenders, led by Tenor Capital, according to a news release. The lenders must give Digital Domain 48 hours notice if they revoke the extension, the release says.

The Tradition-based digital special effects and animation company made news Tuesday by disclosing in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had defaulted on its six loans, triggering a spike in the loans to $51 million. Digital Domain did not miss a payment, but rather did not have enough cash on hand to satisfy the terms of the loans.

Digital Domain is working on a deal with a third party that could infuse the company with cash and refinance the debt, but the negotiations have not been finalized, according to Tuesday's SEC filing.
Digital Domain also is negotiating with the lenders. Digital Domain CEO John Textor announced in July that the company is considering strategic options, including selling a portion of the company.

If the plan does not work and Digital Domain cannot find another way to renegotiate the terms of the loans, the company could be in trouble and resolutions could include seeking bankruptcy protection.

Textor, however, told WPTV NewsChannel 5 that bankruptcy is not on his mind. The interview came after Textor addressed the West Palm Beach City Commission regarding the company's for-profit university in that city.

Digital Domain's stock price fell to a 52-week low of 86 cents per share at one point Wednesday, but climbed to a close of 98 cents per share, a 43 cent-per-share drop for the day. Shares had reached a 52-week high of $9.20 after the company gained notoriety from its hologram of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur "performing" at Coachella, an annual music and arts festival in California, in April.

The company is up-to-date on payments to Port St. Lucie and commitments to the state and St. Lucie County. The company promised to create 500 jobs by 2014 and make annual payments toward its $40 million Tradition Studio in exchange for a $71 million state and city incentive package.

Port St. Lucie owns the building, though Digital Domain would own it once the 20-year lease is up. Should the company go under or not meet requirements, the city would own the building, though the city would lose future property tax revenues.

In previous investor conference calls, Textor has said the way public grants appear in the company's accounting make noncash losses appear greater than they actually are, but the accounting is starting to catch up with the actual cash spent. He has said the company is difficult to gauge in terms of value because there are several different types of businesses under the corporate umbrella.

I still have no idea why DD decided to go public, visual effects is a pretty low-margin business and doesn't really generate a lot of profit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom