Cabinet Entertainment

Cabinet Entertainment, previously known as Paradox Entertainment, is a company dealing in intellectual properties and making motion pictures thereof. All business is conducted from the main office in Los Angeles, United States. The company was founded in 2015 by CEO Fredrik Malmberg, previously co-founder of Swedish role-playing game publishing house Target Games and CEO of Paradox Entertainment.

Some of its most famous holdings are trademarks and certain rights related to Conan the Barbarian, a character created by pulp author Robert E. Howard and expanded upon by many other authors over the years. Cabinet owns these rights through Conan Properties International, a wholly owned subsidiary. Other properties held by Cabinet Entertainment include Bran Mak Morn, Kull, Solomon Kane, Mutant, Mutant Chronicles, Warzone, Kult, and Chronopia. Former licences include Heavy Gear.

History
Further information: Conan the Barbarian ยง Copyright and trademark dispute

Paradox Entertainment started out in 1999,[1] created from the bankrupted Target Games (known at that time as "Target Games Interactive"), a Swedish role-playing games company.[2]

In 2004, the company moved its business to Los Angeles. At this time, the Stockholm operation was spun off into Paradox Interactive.[2]

Paradox Entertainment claims that the company owns the rights to all of Robert E. Howard's stories and characters.

On August 21, 2011, the day the 2011 film Conan the Barbarian opened, SLMI (Stan Lee Media Inc.) unsuccessfully sued[3] Paradox Entertainment, Conan Sales Co., Arthur Lieberman, and others over the rights to Conan, as they claim Conan was improperly transferred to Conan Sales Co. and sold to Paradox.[4]

In 2012, rights for Conan movie sequels reverted from Millennium Films Inc. to Conan Properties International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paradox Entertainment.[5]

In 2015, Cabinet Entertainment, a new company of CEO Fredrik Malmberg (through Cabinet Holdings), acquired Paradox Entertainment Inc. and all subsidiaries and their properties, including the Robert E. Howard properties Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane, as well as the original Target/Paradox properties Mutant Chronicles/Warzone, Kult, Chronopia, and Mutant. The purchase price for all shares in PEINC amounted to $7 million in cash.[6][7][8]

In April 2018, Cabinet joined with video game publisher Funcom to set up Heroic Signatures, an outfit intended to develop Cabinet's intellectual properties into video games.[9]

In September 2020, it was announced that Netflix will develop a new Conan TV series as a part of a larger deal involving Fredrik Malmberg and Mark Wheeler from Pathfinder Media[note 1] between Netflix and Conan Properties International, owned by Cabinet Entertainment, for the exclusive rights to their Conan library for the rights for live-action and animated films and TV shows.[10]

In September 2021, Funcom acquired Cabinet Group, the parent company to Cabinet Entertainment. Funcom, which had already developed and published games based on intellectual properties under license from Cabinet, planned to continue to expand on these properties with the acquisition.[11] Cabinet founder Fredrik Malmberg will become president of Heroic Signatures.[12]

Other company connections

Cabinet Entertainment used to be publicly listed in Stockholm, Sweden. The company called Paradox Entertainment listed on OMX Nasdaq is now called Sensori AB and dealt in medical supplies,[13] until it entered into liquidation on 31 August 2020.[14] Specifically, Paradox Entertainment AB (the Swedish, listed, company) sold off all its operations to Paradox Entertainment Inc. (its American subsidiary). The Swedish company acquired its new medical operations by buying Akloma Tinnitus AB and changing its name, while the American company was purchased by its previous CEO Fredrik Malmberg through Cabinet.[15]

Paradox Interactive, based in Stockholm, is a completely separate entity, no longer a part of Paradox Entertainment.

RPG licenses

Conan is licensed to Modiphius.[16] Kult is licensed to Helmgast.[17] Mutant is licensed to Free League.[18]

Filmography

Includes producer and executive producer credits for Cabinet CEO, Fredrik Malmberg.[19]

Notes
  1. No relation to Pathfinder, Paizo's flagship product.

References
  1. "Pressmeddelande Stockholm" (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2001-05-15. Retrieved 2017-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. "Our history | Paradox Interactive - Global Games Publisher". Archived from the original on 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  3. "9th Circ. Nixes Appeal Over 'Conan The Barbarian' Rights". Law360. 22 October 2013.
  4. Eriq, Eriq (2011-08-22). "'Conan the Barbarian' Lawsuit Seeks Character Rights". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  5. "Conan film rights revert to Conan Properties" (Press release). 5 June 2012.
  6. "Cabinet Holdings Now Owner of Conan Property". Archived from the original on 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  7. "BRIEF-Paradox Entertainment agrees on transfer of Paradox Entertainment to Cabinet". Reuters. 23 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-10-07. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  8. "'Legend of Conan' to Kick off New Cinematic Universe?". 28 May 2015.
  9. "Interview with Funcom CEO Rui Casais". 4 May 2018.
  10. "'Conan the Barbarian' Series in Development at Netflix". 30 September 2020.
  11. Yin-Poole, Wesley (September 14, 2021). "Funcom buys Conan IP". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  12. "Funcom acquires Conan IP holder". Gamesindustry.biz. 14 September 2021.
  13. "The observation status of Sensori AB (Previously Paradox Entertainment AB) is updated (6/16)" (Press release). 8 January 2016.
  14. Vaeren, Petter. "Sensori AB (publ)". Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  15. "Paradox Entertainment AB" (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  16. "CONAN".
  17. "Helmgast ger ut Kult". helmgast.se.
  18. "Fria Ligan | Mutant: Year Zero".
  19. "The Cabinet Group". Archived from the original on 2018-01-14. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
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