Nicolas Gaume
Encyclopedia
Nicolas Gaume is a French
entrepreneur
and creator of video games born 7 February 1971 in Arcachon
, France
. He is currently the CEO of Mimesis Republic and President of the Syndicat National des Jeux Vidéo. He is best known for being the founder and CEO of Kalisto Entertainment
, a bankrupted video game company, from 1990 to 2002. Gaume is the son of a couple of Arcachon hoteliers and a member of a family of local notables. His grandfather was Louis Gaume a real estate developer known for developing the Pyla in the 1920 .
. Atreid is supported by Apple, whose CEO is then John Sculley
, thanks to a former executive of French firm at the apple. Atreid publishes a series of several games for Macintosh, 'including SCOUT and Fury of the Furies. The company has also made several minor productions on game consoles, including Pac in Time, edited by Namco Corporation
.
- and financial imperatives, Nicolas Gaume sells Atreid Concept to British group Pearson, who just bought the publisher of multimedia products Mindscape
. The company becomes Mindscape Bordeaux and Pearson take care of a deficit of 2.5 million francs.
Under that name, Nicolas Gaume develops with his teams a number of titles, including the race car PCAl Unser, Jr.. It also attempts to diversify into publishing and the role-play to exploit its rich universe of games, but without clear success.
. The company attracts attention through its creativity with titles such asDark Earth(1997) andNightmare Creatures,although sales are not always there.
In 1999, with several development contracts underway, Nicolas Gaume decides to introduce Kalisto of the "growth" segment of the Paris Stock Exchange in order to finance new projects. The goal is simple: by taking the initial financial risk in innovative projects, the developer hopes to be in a stronger position with publishers. He also wishes to tackle the online gaming market, thereby changing his business model: selling its games in the form of services to telecom operators rather than as products to publishers.
Meanwhile, Kalisto developsThe Fifth Element,adapted from the film
Luc Besson, and published by Ubisoft
, which sells copies.
Backed by Crédit Lyonnais
, which is co-owner of Kalisto via Luxembourg holding Kalisto Finance SA , the IPO Kalisto held in June 1999.
Nicolas Gaume announced a forecast turnover of 140 million francs for the year 2000. The press is wildly enthusiastic and the young CEO seems to spend more and more time in interviews and seminars, and to be gradually cutting himself from his studio. Thanks to his many social relations, Nicolas Gaume welcomes in its Board of Directors Franck Riboud
, President of Danone and Emmanuel Chain, the former star reporter M6. Dominique Strauss-Kahn
, then finance minister, had him appointed to the Economic and Social Council
. Jacques Chirac
invites him to join him on official travel in Asia.
In 2000, however, Nicolas Gaume is canceling a planned capital increase and falls back on a loan of 20 million euros in July 2000, managed by Credit Lyonnais.
In March 2001, Kalisto must announce its results for Fiscal Year 2000 to its investors. Nicolas Gaume had push back twice the deadline without any clear explanation. The stock, which had made the delight of investors as well as speculators, collapsed by 66% .
On March 12, 2001, Nicolas Gaume finally announces its results: instead of the estimated of 170 millions francs, there is only 19 million francs of turnover. There is also a loss of 175 million francs.
The CEO justifies this unfortunate state of affairs by the deferral of orders from publishers in what is a fluctuant video game market. He also points out to the loss of a contract with Wanadoo
(Internet subsidiary of France Telecom) previously found safe enough to be included in the results forecast .
A month later, Nicolas Gaume announces results for first quarter 2001, with a turnover of 32 million francs. He was later accused of artificially generated much of this revenue through a Swiss company of which he is a shareholder .
In early 2002, faced with the impossibility of ensuring the future of Kalsito and the collapse of its stock price, Nicolas Gaume approaches the hedge fund
Global Emerging Markets to lend the company 15 million euros. The Commission des Operations de Bourse, the French Stock Market Authority now known as Authorité des Marchés Financiers, vetoed this financing plan in February 2002,'it is assumed because of the high yield requested by the fund.
In April 2002, Kalisto is put in forced liquidation
, the liability is estimated at 50 million euros. Subsequently, in several interviews, Nicolas Gaume would blame his bank, Credit Lyonnais, saying he had trusted his bankers. Kalisto is delisted from the stock market on August 19, 2002.
In January 2003, 270 minority shareholders sued the Crédit Lyonnais, a better target than the young CEO to claim damages for their losses .
In July 2003, Nicolas Gaume and its board members are sued for criminal charges by the minority shareholders of Kalisto. They are freed of criminal charges in 2006, the Bordeaux court considerering it unnecessary to open a judicial investigation, which the firm Deminor, specializing in the defense of minority shareholders, said was "an incredible leniency" . A civil action is still ongoing, and the hearing of the argument was held November 24, 2010, before the college of the 9th Chamber of the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris. The Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris said it would issue its verdict in March 2011.
Some will be quick to give indulgence to a young CEO who has made mistakes. Nicolas Gaume tried to justify himself in a book, Citizen Game. In a op-ed in the daily "Les Echos", the CEO of Richelieu Finance, Gerard Augustin-Normand, chose however to call Nicolas Gaume a "liar ". Nicolas Gaume is also severely challenged by the journalist Jean Montaldo in his book The thieves market (Albin Michel, 2003).
. He also holds a number of seats on boards of directors of companies.
In July 2010, Mimesis Republic, which has not yet launch its product, raised 7 million euros from a number of high profile French business angels, including Marc Simoncini, CEO and founder of dating site Meetic
, Jean-Emile Rosenblum, founder and director of Pixmania and French billionaire François Pinault
, through his holding company Artemis
SA
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
and creator of video games born 7 February 1971 in Arcachon
Arcachon
Arcachon is a commune in the Gironde department in southwestern France.It is a popular bathing location on the Atlantic coast southwest of Bordeaux in the Landes forest...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He is currently the CEO of Mimesis Republic and President of the Syndicat National des Jeux Vidéo. He is best known for being the founder and CEO of Kalisto Entertainment
Kalisto Entertainment
Kalisto Entertainment SA was a French video game development company founded by Nicolas Gaume at age 19.The company began as Atreid Concept in 1990 and later created the distribution label Kalisto in 1992, which became Kalisto Entertainment's namesake. In late 1994 Atreid Concept became part of...
, a bankrupted video game company, from 1990 to 2002. Gaume is the son of a couple of Arcachon hoteliers and a member of a family of local notables. His grandfather was Louis Gaume a real estate developer known for developing the Pyla in the 1920 .
Atreid Concept
In 1990, after dropping higher business education, Nicolas Gaume founded the company Atreid Concept with friends to create video games in BordeauxBordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
. Atreid is supported by Apple, whose CEO is then John Sculley
John Sculley
John Sculley is an American businessman. Sculley was vice-president and president of PepsiCo , until he became CEO of Apple on April 8, 1983, a position he held until leaving in 1993...
, thanks to a former executive of French firm at the apple. Atreid publishes a series of several games for Macintosh, 'including SCOUT and Fury of the Furies. The company has also made several minor productions on game consoles, including Pac in Time, edited by Namco Corporation
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
.
Mindscape Bordeaux
Faced with technological changes - the replacement of floppy disks by CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
- and financial imperatives, Nicolas Gaume sells Atreid Concept to British group Pearson, who just bought the publisher of multimedia products Mindscape
Mindscape
Mindscape is an international software publishing company, previously part of The Learning Company. They are now affiliated with EA . As of 2004, the group has offices in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. It has an annual turnover of €38 million and employs 150 people. Mindscape...
. The company becomes Mindscape Bordeaux and Pearson take care of a deficit of 2.5 million francs.
Under that name, Nicolas Gaume develops with his teams a number of titles, including the race car PCAl Unser, Jr.. It also attempts to diversify into publishing and the role-play to exploit its rich universe of games, but without clear success.
Kalisto Entertainment
In 1996, Pearson is divesting its multimedia business and offers Nicolas Gaume to buy back his company, which then becomes Kalisto EntertainmentKalisto Entertainment
Kalisto Entertainment SA was a French video game development company founded by Nicolas Gaume at age 19.The company began as Atreid Concept in 1990 and later created the distribution label Kalisto in 1992, which became Kalisto Entertainment's namesake. In late 1994 Atreid Concept became part of...
. The company attracts attention through its creativity with titles such asDark Earth(1997) andNightmare Creatures,although sales are not always there.
In 1999, with several development contracts underway, Nicolas Gaume decides to introduce Kalisto of the "growth" segment of the Paris Stock Exchange in order to finance new projects. The goal is simple: by taking the initial financial risk in innovative projects, the developer hopes to be in a stronger position with publishers. He also wishes to tackle the online gaming market, thereby changing his business model: selling its games in the form of services to telecom operators rather than as products to publishers.
Meanwhile, Kalisto developsThe Fifth Element,adapted from the film
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...
Luc Besson, and published by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, which sells copies.
Backed by Crédit Lyonnais
Crédit Lyonnais
Crédit Lyonnais is a historic French bank. In the early 1990s it was the largest French bank, majority state-owned at that point. Crédit Lyonnais was the subject of poor management during that period which almost led to its bankruptcy in 1993...
, which is co-owner of Kalisto via Luxembourg holding Kalisto Finance SA , the IPO Kalisto held in June 1999.
Nicolas Gaume announced a forecast turnover of 140 million francs for the year 2000. The press is wildly enthusiastic and the young CEO seems to spend more and more time in interviews and seminars, and to be gradually cutting himself from his studio. Thanks to his many social relations, Nicolas Gaume welcomes in its Board of Directors Franck Riboud
Franck Riboud
Franck Riboud born 7 December 1955 in Lyon, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Danone. He is the son of Antoine Riboud, the previous CEO, who transformed the former European glassmaker BSN Group into a leading player in the food industry....
, President of Danone and Emmanuel Chain, the former star reporter M6. Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...
, then finance minister, had him appointed to the Economic and Social Council
French Economic and Social Council
The Economic, Social and Environmental Council of France is a consultative assembly...
. Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
invites him to join him on official travel in Asia.
In 2000, however, Nicolas Gaume is canceling a planned capital increase and falls back on a loan of 20 million euros in July 2000, managed by Credit Lyonnais.
In March 2001, Kalisto must announce its results for Fiscal Year 2000 to its investors. Nicolas Gaume had push back twice the deadline without any clear explanation. The stock, which had made the delight of investors as well as speculators, collapsed by 66% .
On March 12, 2001, Nicolas Gaume finally announces its results: instead of the estimated of 170 millions francs, there is only 19 million francs of turnover. There is also a loss of 175 million francs.
The CEO justifies this unfortunate state of affairs by the deferral of orders from publishers in what is a fluctuant video game market. He also points out to the loss of a contract with Wanadoo
Wanadoo
Wanadoo is the former name of the ISP division of Orange SA, which is a subsidiary of France Télécom. It operated in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon, and Jordan...
(Internet subsidiary of France Telecom) previously found safe enough to be included in the results forecast .
A month later, Nicolas Gaume announces results for first quarter 2001, with a turnover of 32 million francs. He was later accused of artificially generated much of this revenue through a Swiss company of which he is a shareholder .
In early 2002, faced with the impossibility of ensuring the future of Kalsito and the collapse of its stock price, Nicolas Gaume approaches the hedge fund
Hedge fund
A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
Global Emerging Markets to lend the company 15 million euros. The Commission des Operations de Bourse, the French Stock Market Authority now known as Authorité des Marchés Financiers, vetoed this financing plan in February 2002,'it is assumed because of the high yield requested by the fund.
In April 2002, Kalisto is put in forced liquidation
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
, the liability is estimated at 50 million euros. Subsequently, in several interviews, Nicolas Gaume would blame his bank, Credit Lyonnais, saying he had trusted his bankers. Kalisto is delisted from the stock market on August 19, 2002.
Disciplinary, civil and criminal lawsuits
On 12 December 2002, the Commission des Operations de Bourse (COB), which had opened an investigation, condemned Nicolas Gaume up to euros for repeated wrongful information of its shareholders in connection with the management of a publicly traded company (reduced to euros in appeal) . The COB notes in particular that "the communication of the company had systematically concealed Kalisto's (...) problems and put forward very optimistic forecasts ".In January 2003, 270 minority shareholders sued the Crédit Lyonnais, a better target than the young CEO to claim damages for their losses .
In July 2003, Nicolas Gaume and its board members are sued for criminal charges by the minority shareholders of Kalisto. They are freed of criminal charges in 2006, the Bordeaux court considerering it unnecessary to open a judicial investigation, which the firm Deminor, specializing in the defense of minority shareholders, said was "an incredible leniency" . A civil action is still ongoing, and the hearing of the argument was held November 24, 2010, before the college of the 9th Chamber of the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris. The Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris said it would issue its verdict in March 2011.
Some will be quick to give indulgence to a young CEO who has made mistakes. Nicolas Gaume tried to justify himself in a book, Citizen Game. In a op-ed in the daily "Les Echos", the CEO of Richelieu Finance, Gerard Augustin-Normand, chose however to call Nicolas Gaume a "liar ". Nicolas Gaume is also severely challenged by the journalist Jean Montaldo in his book The thieves market (Albin Michel, 2003).
Post Kalisto
Subsequent to the liquidation of Kalisto, Nicolas Gaume holds a number of positions in companies and video game content in Europe. He leads in particular the Paris studios of Ubisoft Entertainment from March to November 2003. He was vice president of the mobile games branch of Lagardère Active . He advises the British publisher CodemastersCodemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
. He also holds a number of seats on boards of directors of companies.
Mimesis Republic
In 2007, Nicolas Gaume founded with Sebastien Lombardo, founder and CEO of Valtech IT services company, the company Mimesis Republic, which, after exploring different directions, has set a goal of creating games in the rapidly expanding social gaming segment.' The first project, bought from the company UZIK, is called Black Mamba and then Mamba Nation .In July 2010, Mimesis Republic, which has not yet launch its product, raised 7 million euros from a number of high profile French business angels, including Marc Simoncini, CEO and founder of dating site Meetic
Meetic
Meetic is an online dating service founded in November 2001 and publicly quoted since October 2005. It is among the main firms in its industry in Europe. Meetic was founded by Marc Simoncini....
, Jean-Emile Rosenblum, founder and director of Pixmania and French billionaire François Pinault
François Pinault
François Pinault is a French businessman who runs the retail company PPR. He is a friend of former French President Jacques Chirac....
, through his holding company Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
SA