If you had close to $6 billion just laying around, you could’ve possibly bought up all of King Digital, the makers of the addictive Candy Crush Saga. That’s what Activision Blizzard just did, swooping in and buying up shares in King to place themselves at the top of the mobile gaming heap almost instantly, according to Deadline:
The Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard — whose franchises also the Warcraft, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and recently revived Guitar Hero –– will pay $18 per share for King Digital, a 20 percent premium over the latter’s Oct. 30 closing price. King Digital will continue to be led as stand-alone unit by CEO Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Creative Officer Sebastian Knutsson and COO Stephane Kurgan.
Now apparently the purchase will have to go through approval in Ireland, where King Digital is based, but that shouldn’t be much of a problem. It’s just a lot of money that has to change hands.
It isn’t like Activision is lacking the funds, though. As CEO Bobby Kotick put in the press release from the company, “The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment.” Hard to think we won’t be seeing Call Of Duty: Candy Crush Edition soon enough:
The news was released simultaneously with Activision’s earnings for the third quarter, during which the company had net income of 17 cents per share on revenue of $990 million.
Dublin-headquartered King will continue to be led by CEO Riccardo Zacconi, chief creative officer Sebastian Knutsson and COO Stephane Kurgan and will operate as an independent operating unit. The acquisition is expected to be completed in spring of 2016.
“We believe that the acquisition will position us very well for the next phase of our company’s evolution and will bring clear benefits to our players and employees,” said Zacconi. “We will combine our expertise in mobile and free-to-play with Activision Blizzard’s world-class brands and proven track record of building and sustaining the most successful franchises, to bring the best games in the world to millions of players worldwide.”
Well, this news is certainly something. I’m just not sure what that something is now. It makes perfect sense that Activision would be the one to buy up the company behind Candy Crush, but the amount of money just seems insane. I would expect a big push for that return on investment.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter / Deadline)