Gaming hardware company Mad Catz Interactive Inc., known for its fightsticks and other gaming peripherals, announced Friday that the company has made a voluntary assignment in bankruptcy.
Its wholly owned subsidiary, Mad Catz Inc., also filed for relief under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy code in order to liquidate all assets and has ceased all operations. Mad Catz announced that all the directors and officers of the company have resigned as of Thursday.
Founded in 1989, Mad Catz was reportedly under financial burden for quite some time. In 2016, it announced that it had laid off 37 percent of its staff and allowed the sponsorship of Kenryo "Mago" Hayashi and Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi to expire. Fighting-game legend Daigo "The Beast" Umehara's sponsorship ended shortly after. Mad Catz formed a special committee in 2016 to take a closer look at alternatives to the company's financial outlook.
"Regrettably and notwithstanding that for a significant amount of time the Company has been actively pursuing its strategic alternatives, including various near term financing alternatives such as bank financing and equity infusions, as well as potential sales of certain assets of the Company or a sale of the company in its entirety, the company has been unable to find a satisfactory solution to its cash liquidity problems." said Karen McGinnis, president and CEO of Mad Catz Interactive.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as trustee of the company's assets.