Veteran games developer Jez San, one of the founders of now collapsing group Argonaut, once valued at £200 million at the height of the tech boom, has purchased former Argonaut studios Morpheme and Just Add Monsters, in a bid to salvage something from his former opus, now in the hands of the administrators. San's other business interests reportedly acquired the firm's on his behalf, with the result that forty jobs have been saved, some rare good news for the PLC which saw half its staff made redundant last week.

Argonaut's Sheffield studio was one of the first to go, though the Edgware branch of the firm is still open whilst a sale is explored (quite possibly involving San and other parties). Argonaut was founded in 1982, and was until recently one of the UK's greatest achievers, until the independent blight hampering the reached their quarters.

"We are pleased to announce the sale of these two businesses as going concerns," commented administrator Asher Miller said in today's statement. "This has saved over 40 jobs as well as the substantial employment claims that would have arisen had the not been achieved."

By Luke Guttridge