Curt Schilling's 38 Studios Struggling Financially

medv4380 writes "38 Studios, run by Curt Schilling, is having a hard time paying its bills and employees. The gaming community hasn't been happy with the company since the issue with an Online Pass for Single Player Content, which we discussed previously. Now, 38 Studios has bounced a check intended as a payment on its $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. If the company defaults, Rhode Island taxpayers will have to cover the loan and interest, which could total nearly $100 million."

Bad Investment --- again

[cellocgw]

Is there ever going to be a time when the pols realize that throwing massive tax breaks at corporations is a bad idea for the state/city/country they're supposed to be representing?

And BTW everyone in MA and NY knows about Schilling, the bloody sock, the piano in the lake, and a record-setting choke which led to the end of an 86-year curse.

Hypocrite (n):

[American AC in Paris]

"There can be no question our country is in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I also think there can be no question that it falls on us, the individuals, to find a way out of our own personal crisis." - Curt Schilling

It well and truly stinks that this man was ever allowed within ten feet of public funding in the first place. Even more confusing, though, is that he even pursued public funding in the first place.

It's enough to make one think that he never really believed the anti-gubmit pablum he was spouting in the first place.

The real story

[MyLongNickName]

Paying companies to relocation is a win for owners a loss for working stiffs. In the best scenario, tax payers in the new community get the benefit of more jobs at the expense of subsidizing millionaires. The old community losts the jobs the new community gains.

In this case, not only did the new community not gain jobs in the long term, but they are now responsible for $100M in loans. Brilliant job.

I like free markets. I have government in bed with big business.

Re:The real story

[bmo]

An you know what the real irony is here?

Curt Schilling is a full-blown teabagger.

--
BMO

Why is it ironic?

[publiclurker]

Teabaggers are normally self important blowhards who expect everyone else to sacrifice for their benefit.

Re:who?

[Jesus_666]

Of course, Slashdotters who aren't from the United States will be hard-pressed to even name a baseball team*, will wonder why unearned runs aren't prevented by the referee and will wonder what a French New Age pop band has to do with sports. Baseball and American football, while big in the states, are entirely obscure in much of the rest of the world.

* Well, I know that there is a team called the "Red Socks" but I have no idea whether it's a baseball or football team, nor do I care about it enough to ask Wikipedia.

Re:so he bounced a check....

[Grishnakh]

I honestly don't see the problem here. What was the state of RI doing giving venture capital to a start-up business in the first place? Most new businesses fail, so VC is basically a big gamble; you're hoping the company is going to take off and you, being part-owner, will make a ton of money, the way the Facebook owners have done. Giving a loan to a start-up is utterly stupid, and normally it's only done when the company is going to use it to buy a lot of capital equipment, which of course becomes collateral and the bank can seize in the case of default. You'll never find a bank willing to loan you millions to fund a start-up that doesn't have any significant capital equipment (or probably any start-up at all; it seems to me that most business loans are only given to companies that have already "started up" and are successfully operating, but want to grow and need capital equipment to do that; banks don't like to make loans without collateral).

So again, I fail to see the problem. The people of RI were stupid in giving this company so much (or any) money with no collateral except Aeron chairs, and were stupid to be in the business of angel investing. They deserve to lose their money for their stupidity. Maybe next time they'll do a better job electing leaders. At least the federal government investing in firms like Solyndra makes some kind of sense: Solyndra had tons of capital equipment (you can buy some of it on Ebay right now), and its business was something that seemed to be of genuine national importance (developing alternative energy technology). But a video game company? WTF? Not only is that not important, it's not even something we have a shortage of. There's tons of video game companies out there.