Peripheral maker Mad Catz cooked up some fine hardware over the years, but over the past year it's also struggled to stay afloat: In February 2016, the company laid off roughly one-third of its staff, despite what appeared to be a lucrative deal with Harmonix to supply the official controllers for Rock Band 4 and serve as its global distributor. It didn't help. Last week it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange over its "abnormally low trading price," and today GamesIndustry reported that Mad Catz has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
"Regrettably and notwithstanding that for a significant amount of time the Company has been actively pursuing its strategic alternatives, including various near term financing alternatives such as bank financing and equity infusions, as well as potential sales of certain assets of the Company or a sale of the Company in its entirety, the Company has been unable to find a satisfactory solution to its cash liquidity problems," Mad Catz president and CEO Karen McGinnis said in a statement.
Mad Catz said that it was forced to enter bankruptcy after being informed by its financial advisor that "no viable strategic alternative in respect of a sale of the Company or other corporate sale transaction" was available. Lenders were also unwilling to further increase its credit limits.
Unlike a Chapter 11 filing, which enables a company to reorganize under the oversight of the courts, Chapter 7 is not the kind of bankruptcy that a company comes back from: Mad Catz executives have resigned, the company has ceased operations, and it will now move to an "orderly liquidation" of its assets.
