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As I've said before, you don't have to have publicly traded shares to be an AG. If you own a company, you can make an AG out of it and keep 100% of the shares yourself without selling a single one. That's nothing out of the ordinary.
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On April 05 2013 23:30 AnomalySC2 wrote:
Honestly the money laundering angle really doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm no expert (far from it lol) but for money laundering to work the "business" needs to appear to make money, which I don't think anyone currently knows or understands how Azubu is managing to do that.
I think what is most likely is a millionaire whom has money to burn is involved, and they simply want to see esports blow up. A noble goal, and I hope they continue to do what they've been doing because I think everyone here wants the same thing, right?
If you think about it, Azubu is owned by a shell subsidiary, itself owned by a larger holding company. Within Azubu are several divisions. There are so many ways to make it appear as if some money is being made. This is just one example of hundreds of possibilities, but if Azubu.tv screens ads by other companies owned within the same ecosystem, they can't be compelled to release statistics like cost per ad, number of views etc, and anyone auditing them wouldn't check either. The money that pays for these 'ads' could come from anywhere. They wouldn't necessarily even need to screen ads either. Azubu.tv could just be providing 'advertising' for other companies within the same ecosystem.... lots of possibilities.
We haven't seen a financial statement from Azubu, and we aren't likely to. Just because to any rational observer it's obvious that they're losing money in the grand scheme of things doesn't imply that they aren't flushing money through the system, converting illegitimate funds to legitimate funds.
We just don't know.
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Between this and Raidcall, it just doesn't bode well for Esports, to me. Sounds like some ambitious people or companies (guessing Blizzard) are really pushing to give content for people to latch onto, but it's just not happening. Maybe for LoL, but SC2 is just such a bad game. I mean, I love it- but it's so esoteric. Most of the games are terribly boring, just watch any of the PvP's coming out of the SPL right now... I can totally understand how a new person would turn it on, turn it off, and say "why the hell would I ever watch that?"
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On April 10 2013 15:27 CursOr wrote:
Between this and Raidcall, it just doesn't bode well for Esports, to me. Sounds like some ambitious people or companies (guessing Blizzard) are really pushing to give content for people to latch onto, but it's just not happening. Maybe for LoL, but SC2 is just such a bad game. I mean, I love it- but it's so esoteric. Most of the games are terribly boring, just watch any of the PvP's coming out of the SPL right now... I can totally understand how a new person would turn it on, turn it off, and say "why the hell would I ever watch that?"
I think HoTS is a huge improvement over WoL for both watching and playing. They just need to come up with a better way to lure more active players into the game. You can't fault people for not wanting to watch a game that they themselves don't play. Not to mention, you will never really understand the game enough to actually enjoy watching pro play unless you invest a decent amount of time playing it yourself.
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What's wrong with Raidcall? I know they've been sponsoring EG and other tournaments and teams but at least they have a product that's being used by quite a number of streamers, and they're using e-sports to promote this product. I honestly would not have known what raidcall is if they didn't sponsor EG.
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On April 11 2013 00:49 fzeroonline wrote:
What's wrong with Raidcall? I know they've been sponsoring EG and other tournaments and teams but at least they have a product that's being used by quite a number of streamers, and they're using e-sports to promote this product. I honestly would not have known what raidcall is if they didn't sponsor EG.
Yes same for me.
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
On April 04 2013 06:30 heyoka wrote:
I think you guys are forgetting that anything is possible at Abuzucom.
I'm loving all the Azubu jokes!
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Did anybody actually try to, you know, call the guys and ask questions? All this googling is a bit funny sometimes.
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Check corporate registry records - you might be able to find out how much seed capital was used to start the business
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Funny. I live in Azabu and Ive always thought it was very similar. Had no idea it could actually be related! :D
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Did anyone notice in the z-talk video, when he clicked to install it, it was just mumble ......
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I knew someone who worked there.
IT'S A KOREAN COMPANY with 50 Koreans or so working there.
They had some Americans who either quit or were fired.
The only thing German about the company is that the CEO is on the board of directors for some hedge fund company in Berlin. He's Korean, he ripped off a whole bunch of people in the late 90s and bailed. He lives in London, England now. He cannot return to Korea.
The company started off as a mass media site, i.e. IGN, then went to Social Media (epic fail!), now it's all about e-Sports because the only somewhat successful thing they could pull off was the OGN league. Because... OGN did everything.
They have very deep pockets, but I have absolutely no idea how they make any money and pay all those people who work for them at their office in Gangnam, Seoul.
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Players are better off moving to teams like KT, SKT, Samsung, LG, CJ, Woongjin, STX which are real companies with real business models and aren't bound to die off randomly. It's like placing your life and career on a random dice by going with these shady guys.
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On April 04 2013 06:25 ChapOne wrote:
in my opinion raidcall and azubu don't want to make money right now. there goal is to now invest heavily and in a few years may get a revenue out of it. if you're a rich guy liking esports and looking for risky investments, why don't burn your money in esports?
what you have said has no relation to actual investment whatsoever. If you throw money heavily hoping to get a revenue in a few years, that's not investment. And if you are rich and want to just burn your money, that's not investment too.
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On May 11 2013 00:04 Cheerio wrote:Show nested quote +On April 04 2013 06:25 ChapOne wrote:
in my opinion raidcall and azubu don't want to make money right now. there goal is to now invest heavily and in a few years may get a revenue out of it. if you're a rich guy liking esports and looking for risky investments, why don't burn your money in esports?
what you have said has no relation to actual investment whatsoever. If you throw money heavily hoping to get a revenue in a few years, that's not investment. And if you are rich and want to just burn your money, that's not investment too.
Throw money? What does throw money mean?
A lot of entrepreneurial businesses lose money in like the first 5 years. And they usually have investors making this possible. Why do they do this? Because they believe that the firm can make money long term.
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On April 07 2013 07:54 vitruvia wrote:
didn't m5 disband because their manager was invovled with the european blackhat hackers?
The organisation did. The League team stayed together, got a new sponsor and are currently the second best team in Europe
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My bet is on money laundering.
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Hm indeed azubu looks mysterious.
My guesses are:
There is no "real" company behind azubu. Azubu IS eports investment. Now what is their businessplan? There are some options I could imagine:
-We just have an eports-fan who happens to have a lot of money. For some reasons he wants to support esports while remaining anonymous. So he uses azubu keep his anonymity (Yes, doesn't sond too likely)
-There are some people who see esports as a growing future market, so they start investing to get a name in the scene. They already have a plan how they can profit later. Like you know, professional sports teams can make money for their owners.
-Like the last point, but some people just happen to have found investors willing to invest into "something" with computers. Now they happily takes this money, hoping to somehow make money in a few years, and if they don't, then well it wasn't their money they lost.
Anway I will closely pay attention to what azubu in the future. Very interesting op to read.
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On May 10 2013 08:57 LightningStrikes wrote:
I knew someone who worked there.
IT'S A KOREAN COMPANY with 50 Koreans or so working there.
They had some Americans who either quit or were fired.
The only thing German about the company is that the CEO is on the board of directors for some hedge fund company in Berlin. He's Korean, he ripped off a whole bunch of people in the late 90s and bailed. He lives in London, England now. He cannot return to Korea.
The company started off as a mass media site, i.e. IGN, then went to Social Media (epic fail!), now it's all about e-Sports because the only somewhat successful thing they could pull off was the OGN league. Because... OGN did everything.
They have very deep pockets, but I have absolutely no idea how they make any money and pay all those people who work for them at their office in Gangnam, Seoul.
I think something big is coming.
Anyone read recent korean news? (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2013/05/123_136442.html)
this is 3 day old news, but today they released more names of koreans who established paper company in virgin island for avoiding taxes and stuff. (http://news.nate.com/view/20130530n25757)
One of the name is Seok Ki Kim, the guy who ripped off people and bailed. He has been WANTED man in Korea since 90s, he was never caught.
If you google seok ki kim and Lars Windhorst, you will see how close their relationships are.
There has been rumor that Seok ki kim went into hiding and Lars was acting on Kim's behalf to launder money months ago.
It's pretty messed up. Azubu's korean is located in the same address as Gamebook Korea. It's rumored that Kim owns Gamebook Korea, too. Moreover, Kim was hunband of CJ(yes, CJ you know from CJ frost/blaze. CJ owns OGN too)'s vice-president.
http://kuchikirukiaworld.tistory.com/entry/AZUBU-유령회사-글쎄
These whole thing was on one of online news paper like year ago, but shortly after it was published it was brought down as Azubu threatened that they will sue the media company.
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EPT
