Paradox Interactive to become publicly traded company

Paradox Interactive have announced their intent to launch an IPO (initial public offering) during 2016. This would allow people to buy shares in the company, and turn the (currently) privately held business into a publicly traded one.

Here’s Paradox president Fredrik Wester confirming the news, and linking to a Swedish language article about the plans.

Our intention is an IPO for Paradox Interactive during 2016. Check out article below for more info (Swedish) https://t.co/Ww4IEKC6CH

— Fredrik Wester (@TheWesterFront) March 7, 2016

Unless you can read Swedish of course, that article isn’t going to be a great deal of help. Google translate isn’t exactly ideal for financial articles of this nature either, but you can give it a go if you fancy.

It seems that Wester (who currently owns 39% of Paradox, according to the Di Digital piece) wants “more owners among the staff and the players”. There’s also a suggestion (unless this is dodgy translation) that the company has a “fun and different way” of ensuring staff and fans are prioritised as part of the process.

That appears to match one of Wester’s replies beneath his twitter post, where in response to concerns about Paradox becoming beholden to greedy shareholders he states “We have no intention to give up control of the company; but more details will follow.”

The less desirable news is that the Di Digital article quotes Wester’s desire to move Paradox into development for consoles and mobile platforms. Never something you want to see from such a PC-oriented company, really.

So, if you fancy owning a piece of Paradox Interactive in the near future, that looks like a distinct possibility. Not for me though, since that would be a horrible conflict of interest.

Update: More comments on the IPO from Frederik Wester.

“We also want to clarify that the principal shareholders (like myself “and long time owners Spiltan Investment) in Paradox will remain principal shareholders and that only a small part of the company is in question for any future plans.”

Now this is not the end. it is not even the beginning of the end. but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.

— Fredrik Wester (@TheWesterFront) March 8, 2016

We are still masters of our fate. We still are captain of our souls.

— Fredrik Wester (@TheWesterFront) March 8, 2016