Bad to Worse for Motorsport Games: Potential NASDAQ Delisting

Motorsport Games Notice of Delisting.jpg
With licences sold and series pulling out of agreements, the last few weeks have not been positive for one game developer. But now, Motorsport Games is looking at a potential NASDAQ Stock Market delisting.

Image credit: Motorsport Games

Recent years have seen a lot of turmoil in the Motorsport Games offices. But the last couple of weeks have been especially worrying for those within the company. Following far from positive financial reviews, the organisation cut its workforce by almost half and sold the NASCAR licence earlier this month in an effort to save the company.

Meanwhile, both the BTCC and Indycar have put an early end to their licence agreements due to terms not being met. The month of November 2023 will clearly leave a sour taste in the mouths of those in charge. But it seems the troubles are not over.


This morning, Twitter user JPet27 has uncovered a Notice of Delisting sent to the company by NASDAQ. This is the third time in a year and a half that Motorsport Games has received a delisting warning. So it has precedents of overcoming them. But with less cash flow, a rapidly shrinking workforce and fewer projects, the situation is far more critical. Here is all you need to know about the matter.

Motorsport Games Notice of Delisting​

It seems NASDAQ sent the letter warning MSG of delisting on 17 November following the previous Quarterly Report. In fact, the minimum value of all company stocks on a NASDAQ listing must add up to over $2.5 million. In its most recent Quarterly Report, Motorsport Games’ total equity was just $498,897.

As part of the notice’s requirements, Motorsport Games has until 2 January to provide NASDAQ with a plan to amend the issue. This does not require MSG to gain $2 million in equity by the New Year. But lining out a conclusive plan is not an easy matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfeXh0aGTs

With the sale and cancelling of the majority of the developer’s major licences, Motorsport Games cannot rest on their value. Positively for the company, Le Mans Ultimate recently got a release date for early 2024. So the title’s release will most definitely form a major part of its equity plan.

All-in-all, the company has just over a month to provide its plan to rebuild equity. If accepted by NASDAQ, Motorsport games will get a further 20 weeks to reach the minimum equity. If it cannot meet the requirements, there is a high chance Motorsport Games will be delisted from the NASDAQ stock market.

In most cases, a delisting results in plummeting stock value. Whilst shareholders will not lose their stocks, it will be more difficult to sell them off. Further loss of value, according to most financial experts is a route towards bankruptcy. With many sim racers still looking forward to Le Mans Ultimate and Studio 397 continuing work on rFactor 2, they are likely hoping for a positive end for both projects, however.

Are you still excited for Le Mans Ultimate? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

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i was not even aware they were in the nas to begin with.
were they that big? okei.
 
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Premium
Can Studio 397 become independent again when MSG goes down? A question of money probably…?
 
Here's a thing that never made any sense to me and was a giant red flag since day one.

Why a company like MSG is publicly-traded? Doesn't makes any sense, sim-racing is a niche, they're not a company with global sucess to justify and specially payback the investments for their share holders, never was, never would be even if their games actually comes out.

Usually companies go public for two reasons:

-To make even more money.
-Ponzi scheme.

I wonder where MSG lies... :p
 
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Here's a thing that never made any sense to me and was a giant red flag since day one.

Why a company like MSG is publicly-traded? Doesn't makes any sense, sim-racing is a niche, they're not a company with global sucess to justify and specially payback the investments for their share holders, never was, never would be even if their games actually comes out.

Usually companies go public for two reasons:

-To make even more money.
-Ponzi scheme.

I wonder where MSG lies... :p
I think MSG was involved with the first iteration of Le Mans Virtual wich was recieved pretty well and propably a financial success that started this whole drama. It was a cooperation between ACO, MSG and S397 wich was still part of Luminis at that point IIRC. So before entering the gaming market the broadcasting/event stuff was most likely their work horse. After that they started buying studios and acquiring lisences and staff. While being part of Motorsport Network there was propably no shortage of money that was pumped into the system. And that's what might actually happen again, once MSG isn't able to recover on their own. They might just rename the company and start from "scratch" as it happened with other studios, like Simbin for example. Anyway, people read alot into while noone actually besides people involved knows what will happen. And on a side note: I allways wondered why MSG kept on supporting stuff like Traxion GG. There was a reason why Inside Sim Racing was dropped and I still wonder how much money is generated with those sim racing news productions, especialy as they also cover content from the competition. Time for a cup of tea :whistling:
 
Premium
RIP Bozo; while it is an unfortunate state of affairs for S397, MSG are getting what they deserve; I'm just surprised this news hasn't been covered by more mainstream gaming news sites beyond the specific niche of sim-racing.
 
Access to the capitol markets is a good thing. Helps fund investment in the company and in theory builds shareholder value. Nothing wrong with it but the company has to have the products and the market to which it sells its products. For decades, sim racing companies have come and gone going all the way back to Pappy. It is a very tough business model in that the content has to be brilliant but user friendly or the customer just goes with console, the content maker has to compete with Activision or global companies, and once it acquires customers, has to keep them interested together with licensing costs. A pretty tall order.

With this being the company's 4th delisting notice in a relatively short amount of time and market cap of less than a half mil, this notice is ominous for the company as a going concern.

Hope they survive.
 
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Eh this is minor news...

It's not a great look but all it takes is one person looking for a tax write off and the whole thing is reset... MSGS will either get funded, get bought out or restructure and trade under another name...

If LMU is just an rF2 clone I'll be happy... That's all I wanted that NASCAR title to be anyway... rF2 has it's warts, it's stable online and has a well tested physics engine that is still state of the art...
 
Shame they could never get the support every other sim studio gets.

Right from when rFactor was released you had a war start with the EA F1 community.
I mean how thankful can you be considering their sims were also driven by gmotor !
It beggars belief !

Sim community is a joke, local knitting clubs have more spine.
 
Everyone put $1000 we buy S397 from the curators. Thats the same that you would spend on 3 years iRacing or some pointless Fanatec colourfull buttons crap but now we own a studio. Whos with me.
Seriously, I would surely put my pocket in direction of all the good things S397 stood for.

The studio should not be held responsible for hasty and impulsive decisions out of their hands....

My hope is that S397 will continue or at least regroup.

In general I have no issues directing my pocket towards real sim developers as S397, Reiza, Kunos, KW Studios, new kids on the block, besides all the hardcore modding communities (my patron bills are still growing here, but they deserve evey penny), all with the main purpose of continously refining sim modeling, on the way on more and more realistic sim immersions.

So that we do not end up with moneygrabber companies, buying up everything with a one-eyed goal of harvesting the broadest market with lowest common denominator.

Partly off-topic, below dystopic thoughts I really hope will not be our future


If this tendency continues, it becomes senseless for the hardware developers on continuing improving, where we really experience progress at time being.

Instead, there should be a room for everyone, from casual arcade console gamers, competitive console gamers with sim gear, common PC simracers to hardcore simracers with no limits.
 
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