I remember when this happened to Talonsoft. The management there gave all kinds of assurances that nothing would change and no one need worry. Six months later Talonsoft was just a one or two page website with a lot of dead links pointing to forgotten game patches.
Take 2 wanted their US distribution network and nothing else. So once the papers were signed, they quickly excised themselves of everything but that network and Talonsoft became a vague memory.
So I guess it all depends on what Paradox ‘really’ wants out of this deal. They already have their own distribution network, so it has to be the games themselves they want. I can’t imagine they’d spend a lot of money just to block a potential competing products release.
Unless of course they didn’t actually spend a lot of money on this deal…
Personally I hope things work out all right. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a situation where one company acquires another where people didn’t end up regretting the deal in some form or another in the end.
Jim