SharkJumping

In what will come as little surprise to those who follow the video game industry, the bankruptcy trustee of Acclaim Entertainment has filed a $150M lawsuit against many of the executives and directors of the firm.   The lawsuit (here - ) alleges that they systematically looted the company, paid large sums out to insider-owned entities, granted each other ludicrously large pay packages, manipulated the financials, etc., all while the company was drowning in red ink. 

Acclaim was a pioneer in the video game business, once having a larger market cap than Electronic Arts, but it missed the platform transition to 32 bit, had a tendency to make bad games with expensive licenses, and often had a rather interesting approach to executive compensation.  Some would argue that the recent Delaware Disney decision essentially gives Board of Directors a free pass when it comes to personnel decisions, so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.  However, the general business practices laid out in the complaint point out the video game industry's earlier roots as a series of family controlled firms less concerned with shareholder returns than with running the company in any way the executives felt was justified.  As the industry has grown, along with market caps of leaders such as EA, Activision and THQ, much of this activity has thankfully gone away, but recent missteps such as the Hot Coffe mod problem of Take Two's Grand Theft Auto still show the relative immaturity of the industry.