That price seems very low for an incredible brand franchise and IP rights to Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein, Rage -- only $105mm? An article I picked up on it indicates they had 105 developers at the time of acquisition.
I would bet that rumor is false, or that there was some sort of extreme extenuating circumstances that we're not privy to.
I thought the $105m was new debt raised? I could be wrong as I'm not used to look at these forms, but I thought the story went that it was AT LEAST $105m because that was the ADDITIONAL raised. I might borrow 100k for a house, doesn't mean I only spent 100k for the house.
But, as I say, I could be wrong - I'm not an American so I haven't seen these forms too much :-)
My reading is that they raised $105 million via convertible notes and promissory notes "in connection with the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Id Software, Inc.". Traskjd has it right--this might mean they spent $105M on id, or it might mean they only needed to borrow $105M of whatever they spent.
I would bet that rumor is false, or that there was some sort of extreme extenuating circumstances that we're not privy to.