Board Thread:LOC General Discussion/@comment-5428123-20131012092358/@comment-5428123-20131013021150

While CyberAgent is the main shareholder for both Cygames and Applibot, I would imagine that both companies still have autonomy and control over management decisions (if we assume a conventional corporate structure). In a typical corporate environment, parent companies rarely every interfere with the everyday and long-term management of it's subsidiaries (this likely applies to Japan as well). The main roll of parent companies is to supply operating capital and resources to subsidiaries, and to collect back the profit that is made afterwards. It's up to the subsidiaries to decide how to operate and what kind of personnel to hire.

While it's very likely that Applibot does give some of its profits to CyberAgent, I wouldn't think CyberAgent would then just give it to Cygames. Since both Cygames and Applibot are subsidiaries, both would be required to give some of its profits to their main shareholder, and I doubt there is any kind of transferring of funds between these two companies. And speaking from the view of CyberAgent, I would imagine they would want both Applibot and Cygames to thrive, since it would be more profitable in the long term to have several thriving companies rather than just one. If Applibot is struggling financially, I would think they would simply take less profit back or even add in additional capital to ensure the company is doing well. It wouldn't make sense to handicap one of your subsidiaries in order to make the other stronger.

Besides, CyberAgent is quite a large company with many subsidiaries and ventures (Applibot and Cygames make up a miniscule portion of that). Their stock price is over $20 US, and they have a market cap of almost $2 billion US, with $1 billion in revenue reported last year. I don't think they would be particularly desperate for Applibot's measly change. I imagine as the parent group, they would take what makes sense from Applibot, and give an infusion of capital when necessary. If things don't work out, they would simply just sell Applibot rather than continue investing in a sinking ship.

Additionally, Cygames reports having an operating capital of $500,000. While it is a significant difference from Applibot, one has to consider that that Cygames runs as many games as Applibot does (maybe more), with the operating expenses for those games likely exceeding Applibot due to increased user bases. I wouldn't think money is a huge issue when running these kinds games.

All I've said is mostly speculatory of course (minus the numbers which I researched myself). But based on the fact that Cygames could have chosen to run Rage of Bahamut on CyberAgent's own social gaming platform, and instead chose Mobage (before DeNA bought a 20% stake in Cygames), this implies that CyberAgent's subsidiaries do have full autonomy. In all likelihood, I think Applibot's issues are mostly their fault rather than anyone else.