Index Corporation bought Atlus, Madhouse, and Nikkatsu — and collapsed with ¥24.5B in debt

Index Corporation started as a mobile content provider in 1995 and grew into a Japanese ICT and entertainment conglomerate by acquiring major media properties. It purchased Madhouse, one of Japan's most famous anime studios, and Nikkatsu, the oldest major film studio in Japan. Its most notable acquisition was Atlus in 2006, the video game publisher behind the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises.

The rapid acquisition strategy was financed by debt, and an investigation in June 2013 uncovered that the company had been fabricating financial reports. The fraud destroyed lender confidence and triggered a cascade of loan recalls. On June 27, 2013, Index Corporation filed for civil rehabilitation bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court with total liabilities of ¥24.5 billion (approximately $250 million).

Sega Corporation won the bid to acquire Index's assets in September 2013 for ¥14 billion. Sega created a subsidiary called Sega Dream Corporation to hold the assets, which was renamed Index Corporation in November 2013. The non-gaming businesses — including Madhouse and Nikkatsu — were later sold off: Madhouse was acquired by Nippon Television in 2014, and the remaining non-gaming operations were sold to Sawada Holdings in December 2015. The company was renamed iXIT Corporation in July 2016.

For Atlus, the Index bankruptcy was a near-death experience. The studio was acquired by Sega in the Index asset sale and was subsequently restructured under Sega's gaming division, where it went on to release Persona 5 and other acclaimed titles. What was a business failure for Index became a key acquisition for Sega.