– SCi: Could SCi (LON:SEG) be about to make that sale? A fornight ago, the holding company of Lara Croft developer Eidos confirmed it was entertaining takeover discussions after receiving interest. Now today has seen two big-ish trades in the company’s stock. Institutional investor BlackRock Group increased to 6.49 percent its stake in SCi when it bought 50,000 shares (via Thomson) and Liberty Square upped its stake in the Wimbledon-based game maker to 1.39 percent when it bought 66,904 shares (via Thomson) – those trades coming at £171,175 and £238,954 respectively. At the time of its announcement, press reports fingered Ubisoft (FRA.UBI), Time Warner (NYSE:TW) and Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) as possible candidates to buy SCi, though the FT later said private equity buyout was more likely.
– GameXa: There’s gold in them there hills! Or that’s what GameXa, a new currency trading site for online role-playing games, is hoping. The just-launched site, based out of Cologne, Germany, will allow players to trade currencies for a range of titles, including Warhammer and Lord of the Rings, but so far is limited to gold, the cash equivalent of choice for World Of Warcraft’s more than nine million registered players. This will effectively allow players to take a shortcut to increasing their status in the game. The business model – just like a bureau de change exchanging your holiday money, GameXa will take a cut of the deal as commission; in its case, 10 percent. GameXa has so far been funded by an assortment of angel investors. Unlike the gold sellers who operate in some games, GameXa says it allows any players to trade currency on a gamer-to-gamer basis.