Starbreeze: Jürgen Goeldner Becomes Chairman, Mats Juhl Interim CEO

Following the Annual General Meeting there was a reorganisation in management as Jürgen Goeldner was appointed Chairman of the Board. His position as interim acting CEO will be taken over by CFO Mats Juhl until a permanent successor is found.

Jürgen Goeldner took over the position of interim CEO at Starbreeze after the company parted ways with Tobias Sjögren in mid-March (in German). However, it was already clear at that time that Goeldner had been nominated for the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Starbreeze. Goeldner was then also elected as the new Chairman at the Annual General Meeting on 15 May, meaning that the Board has appointed a new acting CEO until the search for a successor to Sjögren has been completed. The new interim CEO is CFO Mats Juhl.

In addition to the election of the Board of Directors, the Starbreeze Annual General Meeting also passed other resolutions. The General Meeting granted the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO discharge from liability for the financial year of 1 January–31 December 2023 and it was decided that no dividend will be distribute.. The meeting also authorised the Board to issue equity instruments.

Shortly before the meeting, Starbreeze also announced its preliminary results for the first quarter of 2024. According to this, turnover doubled year-on-year to 56.6 million Swedish kronor. This is equivalent to EUR 4.88 million at current exchange rates. Payday 3 was the most important revenue driver with 23.3 million Swedish kronor, while its predecessor Payday 2 contributed 10.9 million Swedish kronor to quarterly revenue.

Despite the increase in revenue, there was no significant improvement in earnings. In the first quarter of 2024, Starbreeze posted a pre-tax loss of 21.0 million Swedish kronor, the equivalent of around 1.81 million euros. In the previous year, the quarterly loss was 24.7 million Swedish kronor.