GameSquare announced Friday that it would divest its esports organization Complexity Gaming to current CEO Jason Lake. GameSquare has sold NextGen Tech, LLC d/b/a Complexity Gaming to Global Esports Properties, LLC, the investor group led by Complexity’s founder and CEO Jason Lake, for total consideration of $10.36M USD.
Both companies signed a “Membership Interest Purchase Agreement” dated March 1, 2024, with the transaction expected to close shortly upon “the satisfaction of a closing condition to receive TSXV approval for the transaction.”
“This is an epic moment in the history of Complexity and we’re grateful for this exciting opportunity,” says Complexity founder and CEO Jason Lake. “I’d like to thank the Jones and Goff families and everyone at GameSquare for our years of successful collaboration. Together we’ve significantly grown Complexity’s revenues and built a financially stable organization. It’s now time to write the next chapter in our legendary story and I’m confident our loyal fans will greatly enjoy the years ahead.”
The Esports Advocate had heard whispers in late-December that Complexity Gaming Founder and CEO Jason Lake was on the hunt for investments to buy back the organization from the publicly traded esports and gaming company, but could not verify the story to our satisfaction. The reasoning behind GameSquare being open to divesting Complexity was due to concerns about conflicts of interests that would be created when it completed its merger with FaZe Clan because both organizations compete in many of the same esports ecosystems.
Under the terms of the “Membership Interest Purchase Agreement,” Global Esports has agreed to pay GameSquare approximately $10.36M for Complexity’s assets and intellectual property including Complexity’s esports team, with $750K to be paid upon closing of the transaction. The companies have entered into a three-year seller financed note of approximately $9.61M, which will accrue annual interest of 3.0% to ”be paid to GameSquare in a balloon payment at the end of the term.” Finally, GameSquare will have the right to receive 50% of the proceeds from any equity raised by Global Esports in excess of $500K that will be “credited against the outstanding principal balance of the seller financed note.”
On a related note, TEA reported earlier this week that shareholders of both GameSquare and FaZe Holdings approved a proposed merger between the two companies. GameSquare expects that transaction will be completed shortly, but did not provide a specific timeframe.