Cambridge, MA-based Harmonix, the music-gaming company behind Rock Band and Dance Central, said today it has been sold by Viacom (NYSE: [[ticker:VIA]]) to Columbus Nova, a private equity firm based in New York. Financial terms were not disclosed in the press release, and Harmonix was not immediately available for comment.
“We’re excited to be returning to our roots as an independent and privately owned studio,” said Harmonix representative John Drake in a blog post.
Viacom announced its plans to sell off Harmonix last month. Speculation had swirled around whether Electronic Arts or another big publisher would snap up the studio, which was founded in 1995 and bought by Viacom/MTV Networks for $175 million in 2006. Now it looks like Harmonix will be free to form partnerships with the big game distributors while maintaining its independence.
[Disclosure: I’m in a band with one current employee and one former employee of Harmonix. The band, Honest Bob & the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, has songs in Harmonix games.]
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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