Re:Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang
by Guvante on Wednesday September 10, 2014 @12:00PM
(#8297203)
I didn't mean to say "this is how you value Mojang". I just meant to say "here is how you get numbers that make $2 billion not just FU money".
Determining the value of IP is incredibly complex and something I would love to avoid having to do.
Re:Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Minecraft Maker Mojang
by waps on Wednesday September 10, 2014 @02:46PM
(#8298260)
Let's say their employees are paid $100k each per year (average). And let's say they cost $50k work workplace/perks/... each.
Then let's say they lose 10%-15% of revenue in licencing cost (apple, ms, google, xbox, and let's say some facebook/twitter campaigns and software).
So then you'd have $322m * 0.85 - 40 * $150k - 128m (notch's pay) = 139m profit.
That looks reasonably close on the money. So you'd expect net income to be about $265 million.
But Mojang’s revenue and profit are public: http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/20/5531046/minecraft-mojang-pr...
$322M revenue, $128M profit. However, I’m not sure whether that profit number is the correct one to assess the value of the company and IP.
If I understand this potential acquisition correctly, Notch seems to want to sell everything (company and IP). I think the company is currently set up so that Mojang pays Notch licensing fees for the Minecraft IP. That could potentially be a large part of their revenue. If Microsoft acquires company and IP they obviously don’t have to pay those licensing fees anymore.
Mojang is only a 40 person company, labour has to be their by far biggest cost, and I really don’t think a 40 person software company (that doesn’t really do any marketing, by the way) costs nearly $200M to run per year.