I've now had a chance to read the purchase and sale document between IGE and Yantis:
Purchase Agreement
This is what I've determined:
1. The individuals who owned both IGE and Affinity Media appear to have sold all of their RMT assets to Yantis and his various companies. So that part is true, and I apologize to ZAM for any challenges I may have made about that fact in the past.
2. The confusing part is that the purchase and sale agreement is really for the RMT assets of IGE, and wasn't a "lock stock and barrel" sale of the entire company and name. This is why the WoW lawsuit has been responded to by a collection of entities (that include Affinity) calling themselves "IGE" still. "IGE US LLC" is still commonly owned by the individuals who own Affinity Media, even though it no longer owns any RMT assets.
3. The agreement is very clear that the sellers retain an absolute option to repurchase all of the RMT assets they sold, PLUS any RMT assets owned by Yantis and his other companies. They can exercise that right anytime they want, and Yantis must give them a right of first refusal before selling those assets.
4. Yantis is required to pay the sellers royalties as a percentage of his earnings from the assets. He is required to pay a minimum royalty, but that isn't capped. So Affinity/IGE US are still deriving a portion of their revenues from RMT, since that is the source of the money being paid to them by Yantis. Rather than collecting this money directly themselves, therefore, the sellers are still collecting it in a manner similar to outsourcing.
Does an absolute right to buy everything back, and a right to a percentage of all future RMT revenues earned, constitute a "sale" of the RMT business? From a business standpoint, yes. From a philosophical view, who knows. But in my business and legal opinion, these assets were transferred in a manner where Affinity/ZAM was able to truthfully say it had sold it's RMT assets to Yantis.
P.S. It appears that all of the computer systems, records, and operations of the Yantis company are in Hong Kong and elsewhere in China. What the IGE defendants (including Affinity and IGE US, Yantis and his IGE Hongkong companies haven't yet been served) are saying is "we don't have any records, we sold the assets that are the subject of this suit, and that sale included all those records, so we don't have anything to produce".
The Chinese companies controlled by Yantis appear to possess and control all the documents being sought in the WoW lawsuit (you will recall they are trying to get lists of names of all players who ever purchased gold from IGE, among other things). I attempted to serve a business entity in China once, and all I have to say is "good luck", I'd be very surprised to see anyone succeed in getting the Yantis companies to produce the documents being sought in the lawsuit or defend themselves in a US court.
Everyone involved in this situation appears to have been extremely smart and had excellent timing, and that's all I have to say.
Re: State of Florida to Investigate IGE.
