my post 2060 history is fuzzy what happened to Cross?

Damien Knight ate them.

In one gulp. Pretty much with the loss of their CEO no one at CAT had the moxy to hold off Damian Knight and he dismantled Cross in no time.

Nothing is confirmed in SR4 canon. I've heard a) they're still around, only in a much reduced form and minus their Corporate Court seat and b) they were completely absorbed by Ares Macro. At this point, I'm hoping the "Corporate Guidebook" sourcebook that's scheduled for this year will flesh that bit of trivia out. I don't imagine Vice will touch on it.

Yeah... it bugs me too because I want to know what became of the Seraphim.

I'm Pretty sure Horizion grabbed a chunk too, mostly out of their Entertainment and Multimedia division.

After Lucien Cross died during the Crash of '65 (his private plane went down when the computer systems failed); Damien Knight took revenge on him by dismantling his corporation and eating up most of it, and I'm sure some other megas grabbed a piece.

Didn't anyone see that art of the Cross HQ where they're taking down the "Cross Applied Technologies" sign and replacing it with the "Ares Macrotechnology" logo?

Forgot about that. Though I remember thinking it was a CATco subsidiary office being emptied, not the actual HQ in Quebec.

Ares gobbled up most of CATCo (at least the good bits).
The other megas squabbled over the leftovers like vultures.

That is essentially it.

I've followed the history as closely as possible because my PCs origins are from CATCo.

- J.

It'll be interesting to see what that does to conditions on the ground in Quebec. CATco were the main power behind the isolationist anti-Anglo policies, effectively turning it into their own private country just like Aztechnology did with Mexico, so with Megas like Ares and the others buying up large chunks of them they're going to start using their new-found power to repeal all the protectionist laws that CATco used to keep them out of the country.

In my setting, where Quebec used to be a closed shop, several megas have moved in.

I'd have to check my notes but S-K, Ares, Shiawase, NeoNET were the big ones IIRC.

- J.

It was touched upon in System Failure. The SR4 BBB shows that Cross Matrix Technologies still exists as a brand (see "CMT Clip" commlink), so that could be a division of CATCo that was able to escape (CMT is headquartered in Seattle, BTW), or it could just be Ares or some other megacorp keeping the CMT "brand."

Cross Matrix Technologies is/was headquartered in Montreal. Cross Advanced Electronics is/was headquartered in Seattle.

And I won't get myself started one more time on how ridiculous the "Ares bought out Cross" plot is.

I dont think we have seen the last of CATco. From a plot design point of view the Seraphim are just too interesting. Just the name itself resonates with people I think.

Maybe Michael instucted his Seraphim to infiltrate Ares in every department. Once done they plan to take Ares out from within (or maybe just boot Damien Knight).

It might be an interesting story progression to finally see Ares fall. Ares has been a staple of SR from the beginning (I assume) so its death would be pretty meaningful.

In my campaign, the Seraphim have forked out and decided to strike it out on their own.

They were able to peel away significant resources from CATCo just after the Crash.

A large number of the Seraphim were bought into the fold of this new organisation. Those unwilling or ferociously loyal to CATCo itself were destroyed.



This new group is called 'The Fallen'.

- J.

Ah good catch, I did get that one mixed up.


It's called, "the writers were bored with CATCo and wanted a new megacorp." I thought the whole death of CATCo was a little "thin" on the plot side of things as well (and I really liked the megacorp, especially the Seraphim) but I don't get hung up too much on everything in the SR world being "realistic" because there's, you know, dragons and magic.

I think you just did.

I didn't like Lucien getting rubbed out. I actually miss him more than CC. But in the world of SR Ares raiding Cross is entirely feasible. The main driving force behind the mega dieing? The stock price is going to crater even more than everyone elses. Drop and sweep. Ares comes up with a controling interest, dismantles key parts and merges what they want at below firesale prices. Everyone is so busy digging out from the Crash that Ares only has to uses a few wetworks assets to quell discention.

My pet theory is that they got rid of Cross so they could bring the Seraphim to the fore...

- J.

A lot of the power of mega corporations comes from their wealth and resources, but the other side of it comes from relationships and gentleman's agreements. Cross and Knight had been at each other's throats since the 50s due to Cross grabbing a small company that Knight wanted (amongst other things). In the wake of the Crash and as CATCo goes through some corporate restructuring due to the new CEO coming on board, Knight makes his move--he starts buying out stock options in various corporations. He doesn't need to buy all of it, just a controlling interest or enough to form a voting bloc with like-minded investors. From there, using the financial firms that the mega has within itself (banking systems, brokerage houses etc), he is able to short-sell various other pieces to lower cost and buy things back up.

Whether Knight prompted the FBA and BoA to file suit against CATCo is unclear, but the other financial powerhouses were able to tie up the liquid assets that CATCo had to bring to bear. This neutered their ability to fight back and hold off other megas from taking prize portions. Depending on the corporate structures, it may have been possible for CATCo to shift debt into smaller subsidiaries and hold the patents and IP as a honeypot to Knight and straddle Ares and others with debt. This would have cost CATCo their AAA status but allowed them to stay afloat after breaking clean of the FBA. Perhaps if the new CEO was as bold and brazen as Knight, he could have made it work--as it stands, they folded after being picked apart from all sides.

Ok, so here I come again. According to Corporate Download, there are about 10% held by minor shareholders or floating on the market, that Ares may buy out. The remaining 90% are held by Lucien Cross, his son Jean-Marie, Leonard Aurelius and Jezebel Surrateau. Those people hate Damien Knight. They'd sell to anyone, Lofwyr, Villiers, the Mormons, the Vatican bank, you name it, but not Knight.

Corporate Download is about 20 years out of date...

Corporate Download is set in 2061, while Ares bought Cross out in 2064 or 2065.

IIRC Corporate Download is around 2055, I remember owning it before having any of the 3e books. Though I may have just waited longer than I thought on 3e

Corporate Download was published in 1999 (SR 3rd ed). Corporate Shadowfiles was published in 1993 (SR 2nd ed).

Sorry. I was putting Corp Download into 2nd edition not 3rd. Thanks for clarifying for me.