Warner Bros.: Bids for Midway Games assets

Warner Bros.: Bids for Midway Games assets

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. has made a $33 million bid to buy "substantially all" of the video-game maker's U.S. assets, including the company's Mortal Kombat franchise and its development studios.

The owners of the companies said on Thursday that they have a "stalking horse" agreement, essentially the opening bid in a court-supervised auction for the company's assets.

The deal is not for the entire company. Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City, would take over Midway's development studios in Chicago and Seattle along with the "Mortal Kombat" line, but not studios in San Diego or Newcastle and the company's TNA Wrestling franchise.

Midway has already filed for bankruptcy protection in February after media mogul Sumner Redstone sold off his majority stake in the company, leaving it unable to meet debt obligations.

The company had already been struggling, saying in December it would lay of 25 percent of its work force, or about 180 people, and close a studio in Austin, Texas.

If the deal goes through, this would be Warner's fourth major gaming acquisition.