Jaleco - History

History

Jaleco was founded as Japan Leisure Corporation on October 3, 1974 as a manufacturer of amusement equipment. In 1982, the company started developing and manufacturing arcade video games; as a result Japan Leisure Corporation shortened its brand name to Jaleco in 1982 and formally changed its name to Jaleco Ltd in 1983.

Jaleco was a video game company whose focus lay in arcade titles, as well as titles for the NES and other popular computer and video game consoles of the 1980s and 1990s, most notably the Bases Loaded series and Carrier. The U.S. arm of Jaleco was Jaleco USA based near Chicago in the town of Wheeling, Illinois.

By 2000, Jaleco, still active in the development of arcade and console video games, hadn't produced any hit title in years and was in a struggling state. Its American division Jaleco USA had already left the arcade industry in 1993. On November 1, 2000, Jaleco was acquired by Hong-Kong company PCCW. Jaleco, renamed PCCW Japan, gave the PCCW Group a foothold in Japan. PCCW heavily restructured the company, shutting down Jaleco's arcade division and other non-profitable departments to focus on video games for consoles of the sixth generation era. PCCW Japan itself acquired on April 2001 the VR-1 Group which included VR-1 Entertainment, a U.S. developer of massively multiplayer online role playing games, to bring a more global focus to its current and future software endeavors. On October 2002, PCCW Japan merged Jaleco USA and VR-1 Entertainment to form Jaleco Entertainment, its new U.S. division that would be based in Buffalo, New York instead of Wheeling, Illinois. PCCW Japan reverted its name back to Jaleco in 2004.

The rechristened Jaleco continued to serve as the official Japanese subsidiary of the PCCW Group throughout 2004 and most of 2005; engaging itself in video gaming, music, web application and mobile phone content. However on August 2005, PCCW sold Hyperlink Investments Group (PCCW's subsidiary that owned Jaleco) to Sandringham Fund SPC.

On May 31, 2006, Jaleco's board of directors (JASDAQ: 7954) opted for a change of name from Jaleco Ltd to Jaleco Holding Ltd and, in the process, spun off the video game division into a separate company that would take the name of Jaleco Ltd. Jaleco Holding became the name of the company that has existed since 1974, while Jaleco Ltd became the name of the new company that was established on July 3, 2006, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaleco Holding. The decision for the reorganization was based out on the fact that the original company had expanded in many activities beyond video gaming.

On October 2007, Hyperlink Investments Group sold its stock in Jaleco Holding to Game Yarou (an online game company) and to two different Korean companies: STIC Pioneer Fund and A2i Co Ltd. But in early 2008, Game Yarou divested itself from its interests in Jaleco Holding to pay off some of its own debts.

In 2008, Jaleco Holding dissolved two subsidiaries: FFBC Investment and J CONSULTING.

On January 15, 2009, Jaleco Holding sold Jaleco Ltd to Game Yarou, for ¥1 (US$0.01). However, Game Yarou assumed ¥700,000,000 ($7.736 million) of Jaleco Holding's ¥16,000,000,000 ($17.68 million) loan. Jaleco Holding spokespersons stated "an increasing competition in recent years in the videogame market" as the reason for their retirement from the video game industry, and that risk factors for their profitability will be removed after their withdrawal.

On April 2009, Jaleco Holding changed again its name this time to Emcom Holdings, presumably to avoid confusion with Jaleco Ltd and to dissociate itself from a trademark that has long been associated to the video game industry. The Emcom group had been Jaleco Holding's most important division since 2008. The subsidiary Japan Central Real Estate was renamed Emcom Realty.