Sulake

Sulake
Native name
 Sulake Oy
Private
Industry Teen social networking
Video games
Founded 2000[1]
Founder Sampo Karjalainen
Aapo Kyrölä
Headquarters Helsinki, Finland
Area served
 11 countries[2]
Key people
 Jyrki Arjanne (CEO) (2017–present)
Products

Habbo (2000–present)
VMK (2005–08)
Mini Friday (2006–10)
IRC-Galleria (2007–11)
Bobba Bar (2009–11)
Lost Monkey (2011–12)
Niko (2012–12)

Hotel Hideaway(2018–present)
78,700,000 US$ (2011)
Owner Behar Rexhaj
Number of employees
 52 (December 2015)
Parent OrangeGames
Website www.sulake.com

Sulake Oy, or Sulake (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈsulɑke]), is a Finnish video game company known for the development and creation of Habbo Hotel, an online chatting game.

History

In its early days, Sulake developed and experimented with an open source Java based GNU called FUSE Light, an alternative to Macromedia's Shockwave. The key difference between the two technologies was that FUSE Light was designed to run on any operating system, while Shockwave was limited to just Mac OS and Windows. This technology was first demonstrated on Sulake's Mobiles Disco, but it soon came to use on the beta versions of Habbo.[3]

In March 2011, Sulake reported that revenue was up more than 20 percent over 2009, resulting in sales of €56.2 million ($78.7 million).[4] Sulake’s EBITDA in 2010 totaled €5.4 million ($7.6 million, 9.5 percent of revenue) and thus significantly improved from the previous year (€0.6 or $0.8 million). Net profit was €1.6 million ($2.3 million). Sulake has also been playing an active role in assisting the police in investigations connected to the theft of online furniture.[5]

In September 2011, Sulake announced Paul LaFontaine as new CEO as the original management team left the company.[6]

In February 2012, it was announced that Sulake will be consolidating some of its manual processes and local operations.[7] In showing the door to 25% of their workforce, Sulake will also close all of their 11 country offices according to the report by Finnish publication Dome.fi.[8]

In October 2012, it was announced that Sulake would be implementing a second wave of job cuts. A maximum of 60 out of the 90 jobs will go. Negotiations with employees began on 5 November 2012.[9]

In December 2012, it was announced that CEO Paul LaFontaine would be leaving his role after fifteen months.[10] In January 2013, Sulake announced that Markku Ignatius would replace LaFontaine as acting CEO.[11]

In February 2013, telecommunications company Elisa announced that it was buying Sulake. By the end of the month it will become the biggest shareholder with 85% of the shares.[12]

In April 2013, Antti-Jussi Suominen became the CEO of Sulake.[13] He left his post in January 2017 to join banking startup Holvi.[14]

In May 2018, Elisa Oy sold on 17, 60% of the shares of Sulake Oy to the Dutch company Orange Games. The value of the deal was not disclosed.[15]

In August 2018, Elisa Oy sold on 80% of the shares of Sulake Oy to the swedish businessman Behar Rexhaj. The deal's details aren't made public yet.

Controversy

In June 2012, Sulake received negative press for ongoing sexual behavior allegations in their most successful site, Habbo Hotel. Channel 4 News identified that Sulake was allowing users to post pornographic and violent messages - despite the fact that Habbo is targeted at young teenagers.[16] On 13 June 2012, one of the main shareholders, 3i, which held 16 per cent of shares, declared it was pulling out of Sulake shares alongside other investors including Balderton Capital.[17]

Sulake's original pixelated logo (2000–2003)

References

  1. ↑ "Studio Profile: Sulake". Edge. Future plc. 17 March 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "Sulake: Habbo". Sulake Oy.
  3. ↑ "FUSE Light". Sulake. Archived from the original on 2002-08-02. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  4. ↑ Habbo Hotel’s Parent Company Reports Record Year
  5. ↑ Virtual thieves caught in Habbo Hotel Finland
  6. ↑ Sulake CEO Timo Soininen Steps Down (Archived 30 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.)
  7. ↑ Sulake Consolidation ( Archived 13 September 2012 at Archive.is)
  8. ↑ "Suomalainen Sulake vetäytyy maailmalta, irtisanoo tuntuvasti –". Dome.fi. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  9. ↑ Anderson, Greg (2012-10-29). "Breaking: Sulake To Begin Talks To Reduce Workforce By Up To 2/3". Arcticstartup.com. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  10. ↑ "Paulwalla Departing | Behind the Pixels". Blog.habbo.com. 2012-12-31. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  11. ↑ "LaFontaine steps down. Markku Ignatius appointed as an acting CEO". Sulake. 2013-01-02. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  12. ↑ "Kaikki tiedotteet - Tiedotteet - Elisa Oyj". Corporate.elisa.fi. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  13. ↑ "Ignatius completes interim period and steps down as CEO; Antti-Jussi Suominen to head Sulake business from 1 April 2013 onwards". Sulake. 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  14. ↑ "Holvi announces Antti-Jussi Suominen as new CEO". Finextra. 2016-11-09. Retrieved 2016-11-09.
  15. ↑ "Teleoperaattori Elisa myy enemmistöosuutensa kuuluisan Habbo-verkkopelin kehittäneestä Sulakkeesta". hs.fi. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  16. ↑ "What is happening in Habbo Hotel? - Channel 4 News". Channel4.com. 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  17. ↑ Internet. "Habbo Hotel investor pulls out over pornographic content claims". Telegraph. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
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