The Paris Commercial Court has ruled that Cyber Group Studios will be liquidated, ending a bidding process that has yielded several proposals over the last few months that would have kept the French animation company in business under new ownership. Instead, its assets will now be sold off to pay back creditors. 

Cyber Group has been in judicial recovery—a process of legal protection for insolvent French companies—since November. In keeping with standard operating procedure for these cases, the court made it clear at the time that the Gigantosaurus (pictured) studio had a six-month window (until April 30, 2025) to either recover financially or completely liquidate in order to repay its creditors. 

The court ruled to liquidate Cyber Group despite having four takeover offers on the table. Hildegarde, Solent Productions, Newen Studios and a joint-venture between United Smile, Toonz Media Group and Atlas Global all submitted bids. Most parties were primarily interested in getting their hands on Cyber Group’s Gigantosaurus IP, as well as an animated series it was developing based on video game Final Fantasy IX. 

Christine Blériot, who worked at Cyber Group from 2004 to 2013 as international SVP of marketing and licensing, and who consulted with Solent on its bid, criticized the court’s decision on LinkedIn. “I am shocked by this hasty liquidation and…incomprehensible waste,” she says, noting that Solent’s offer was supported by Cyber Group CEO/chairman Dominique Bourse and the company’s employees. 

Kidscreen reached out to Bourse, who isn’t permitted to talk to media during the judicial recovery process, but is eager to share his thoughts as soon as he’s able. “I have a lot to say about the difficult times our industry is going through, and the strategies for recovery. Animated content is far from being dead!”  

Cyber Group Studios acquired a majority stake in A Productions in 2022, but A Productions is not part of the liquidation, joint managing directors Katherine McQueen and Mark Taylor told Kidscreen in a statement after this story was originally published. “As an independently run studio, A Productions continues to be in a secure financial position with a robust pipeline of shows and a bright future ahead. We are actively seeking the reacquisition of the proportion of our shares held by Cyber Group Studios to return to 100% independent ownership and hope to conclude this as soon as possible.”

And following this story’s publication, Solent Productions’ co-founder Grégoire Parcollet told Kidscreen: “We are obviously very sad that the tribunal didn’t want to consider our offer. Our thoughts are with all the Cyber Group employees who will lose their jobs. And we hope that the court will find a solution for the resumption of current production.”

Updated 04/29 with statements from A Productions and Solent Productions.