From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd
On Fri, 2 May 2025 10:47:38 +0200 (GMT+02:00), kyonshi <
smaug@ereborbbs.duckdns.org> wrote:
Source: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/aent-sues-diamond-claim-fraudulently-misrepresented-wotc-agreement/
More comic news but does involve Wotc
For people who come to Usenet /not/ just to be redirected back to the
web, here's a summary:
It's about the bankruptcy proceedings of Diamond Comic Distributors.
Alliance Entertainment was the highest bidder on the company, but AENT
pulled out after it was revealed that Diamond had lied* about a
distribution contract they had with Wizards of the Coast. Without this
asset, Diamond suddenly looked a lot less valuable (a 25% revenue
reduction for Diamond, in fact), and AENT decided not to buy. Now
Alliance is demanding that Diamond return the deposit Alliance had
made prior to purchase.
Wizards really has nothing to do with this except that they didn't
renew a distribution agreement with the failing company. Sales of WOTC
products from Diamond were falling (while sales from other WOTC
partners were rising) and WOTC decided to take their business
elsewhere. WOTC made this clear to Diamond back in December, but
Diamond hid this information from Alliance, and in fact claimed the relationship with WOTC was 'strong and stable' in order to make the
sale of Diamond more likely.
I know there's a lot of hate-on for WOTC and seeing "WOTC is in court again!!1!!!" is exciting, and that people read 'WOTC' and 'contract'
and just assume Hasbro is playing shenanigins with the SRD again, but
this time they've really nothing to do with it except for having their perfectly justifiable business actions misrepresented.
* sorry, I guess 'misrepresented' is the approved nomenclature these
days. Corporations would never do anything so base as /lie/, right?
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