To be honest I am not that familiar with Brian Farell specifically. From what I can dig up online I know he's been with THQ since it went public in 1991 and he became CEO in 1995.
Going purely by THQ's stock price since 1995 it looks like he's done a pretty damn good job, likely saving the company from the brink of disaster. His strategy of partnering with companies with big brands like WWE, Disney, and Viacom has served his company well in the past decade.
However, in my humble opinion, the industry is changing and this strategy is not sustainable when it appears the true media giants are all starting to ramp up their own game publishing and development business. Disney, Viacom, and others will no longer want to give up their best brands or will charge significantly more for licensing fees putting the squeeze on THQ.
I think Farell can see the writing on the wall and that's why in the past few years they've started building internally and began acquiring other development studios. But this strategy of building great games is a lot different than licensing great brands and it's something that THQ doesn't seem to be very good at.
THQ still expects to make 60-65% of it's revenues from licensed games in fiscal ’09 and aside from a few titles like Saint's Row, internally they just aren't performing. Now it's all culminating with the shut down of several studios which they acquired just a few years ago.
So is Brian Farell a trustworthy guy? Probably, I have no reason not to believe him. But more importantly is Farell the right person to be in charge of THQ going forward? My crystal ball says no.
Additionally, I never said Jerry Yang was untrustworthy. I simply think he's delusional. He truly believes that he can turn around Yahoo and eventually get the price above $35, but I believe he is wrong and YHOO won't see those prices for another 5 years or so.
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To be honest I am not that familiar with Brian Farell specifically. From what I can dig up online I know he's been with THQ since it went public in 1991 and he became CEO in 1995.
Going purely by THQ's stock price since 1995 it looks like he's done a pretty damn good job, likely saving the company from the brink of disaster. His strategy of partnering with companies with big brands like WWE, Disney, and Viacom has served his company well in the past decade.
However, in my humble opinion, the industry is changing and this strategy is not sustainable when it appears the true media giants are all starting to ramp up their own game publishing and development business. Disney, Viacom, and others will no longer want to give up their best brands or will charge significantly more for licensing fees putting the squeeze on THQ.
I think Farell can see the writing on the wall and that's why in the past few years they've started building internally and began acquiring other development studios. But this strategy of building great games is a lot different than licensing great brands and it's something that THQ doesn't seem to be very good at.
THQ still expects to make 60-65% of it's revenues from licensed games in fiscal ’09 and aside from a few titles like Saint's Row, internally they just aren't performing. Now it's all culminating with the shut down of several studios which they acquired just a few years ago.
So is Brian Farell a trustworthy guy? Probably, I have no reason not to believe him. But more importantly is Farell the right person to be in charge of THQ going forward? My crystal ball says no.
Additionally, I never said Jerry Yang was untrustworthy. I simply think he's delusional. He truly believes that he can turn around Yahoo and eventually get the price above $35, but I believe he is wrong and YHOO won't see those prices for another 5 years or so.