Bob Maher, a former professional Magic: The Gathering player, has purchased the assets of ACD Distribution (see 'ACD Distribution Sold'). ICv2 talked with Maher, who has renamed the company ACD LLC about the transaction and his plans for the future of the nation's second largest game distributor.

You've just purchased ACD?
It's technically a new company, ACD LLC.  I bought all of the assets.

But not the liabilities?
Right.

Do you know what's going to happen to those?
They will be dealt with on a case by case basis.  There's no good way to answer that question.  In general if people still have outstanding liabilities they should contact Rich (Kummer) or me and we will deal with it on a case by case basis.

What's your background?
I played Magic professionally for a number of years.  That was kind of my introduction to the industry.  I worked here as a purchasing agent about three years ago for six months.  But I've also been a personal friend of Rich and Danny's for about ten years or so.

What's happening with the ACD team, is Rich going to stay or Danny?
Rich is just helping us with the transition for a couple of months.  He's not here often, it's just when I have a question I give him a call.  All the other employees were retained including Danny (Procell)--he will be in the same role as he was in the past.  I'll be the President and he will be the General Manager.

So the transaction is complete?
It's complete, it actually happened last Monday, but with the holiday it's kind of been in a whirlwind.  The time frame of it got moved up, it all just happened in one day.

Last Monday being the 26th?
No, I'm sorry it was the 19th.  It was complete as of the end of business on the 19th.

ACD has continued to do business, so the new company bought all the orders in the pipe?
I bought the inventory, all the receivables, all the transactions, basically anything you can count as an asset.

So this new company has been doing business with the retailers for a couple of weeks?
Yes, and the sales reps as they have been on the phone with the accounts, have I believe, informed the majority of them that a change has occurred.

Was ACD in financial distress, was it related to losing WizKids?
No, it wasn't WizKids.  They (ACD) had a large line of credit out that went to finance some other projects that they had done, not necessarily even related to the gaming industry, and they were slowly sinking due to the burden of the interest on that line of credit.

ACD still has an operation in California?
Yes, I purchased that as well.  We are still running the warehouse in California -- all those employees were retained as well.

What are your plans for the future as the new owner?
I plan on moving into a growth mode from here on out.  We'll get through the Christmas season as best we can because there is a lot of phone work and people work to be done, but starting in the new year, we'll be looking at opening additional warehouses, updating our Website to make it more user friendly, basically just bringing ACD up to date.  This transaction should give us an influx of capital that will allow us to do things that in the past ACD was just unable to accomplish.