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Razer, a retailer of gaming peripherals, took a major step toward delisting its shares from the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, paving the way for the company to become a private entity. The withdrawal of the listing of the shares is expected to take place from 9:00 a.m. on May 13.
In December last year, Razer issued an announcement saying that, due to the low liquidity of listed shares and low stock price, the company hopes to lift the restrictions on listing rules to develop its high-risk businesses. CEO Chen Minliang joined hands with CVC and Lim Kaling, early investors and current non-executive directors of the company, to form a consortium, which will take the company private at HK $2.82 per share.
Razer was founded in 1998 in San Diego, USA, by Chen Minliang and Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff. In the mid-1990s, with the rise of online games and competitive first-person shooting (FPS) games, gamers found that the performance of traditional peripheral devices in games was good enough.
Razer seized this opportunity and consolidated its advantages in technology, design and ergonomics, including user interfaces, system devices, player voice communication devices, and game device customization platforms based on cloud technology.
On November 13, 2017, Razer announced its successful listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Regarding the privatization efforts, market analysts said that the company’s ultimate goal is likely to be re-list in the US.
According to the financial report, in 2021, Razer’s revenue was $1.62 billion, of which game peripheral hardware equipment garnered $1.084 billion, accounting for 67% of the total revenue.
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According to Razer’s in recent financial data, although its revenue has increased year by year and the net profit has gradually improved, it suffered losses for five consecutive years from 2015 to 2019. In 2020 and 2021, it achieved an annual profit of $800,000 and $43.389 million respectively.
