Activision buys Candy Crush creator King Digital for $5.9 Billion

Activision Blizzard publisher of popular video games Call of Duty and Destiny is acquiring Candy Crush Saga-maker King Digital for $5.9 billion. Activision Blizzard  will acquire all outstanding King shares for $18.00 in cash per share.

Both companies boards have unanimously approved the deal and expect it to be completed by spring 2016. However, it must be approved by King’s shareholders and the Irish High Court.

Considering the age of the game, that's a lot of money. To understand how big 5.9 billion is for King, lets take Engadgets comparison- "Amazon paid a paltry $970 million for Twitch while Facebook spent $2 billion on Oculus VR and $19 billion on messaging platform Whatsapp. Oh, and Minecraft only set Microsoft back $2.5 billion."

King has more than 200 titles under it including Candy Crush, Farm Heroes, Pet Rescue and Bubble witch. The company said that it has 340 million average monthly unique users across web, social and mobile platforms as of Q2 2015.

Activision, who have many popular game titles on Xbox, PS and PC, is yet to make an impact in mobile gaming. This deal gives Activision immediate access to the growing mobile gaming audience, the fastest-rising sector in gaming

Commenting on the deal, Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said-

The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment. With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.

Activision Blizzard will provide King with experience, support and investment to continue to build on their tremendous legacy and reach new potential. We share an unwavering commitment to attracting and developing the best talent in the business, and we are excited about what we will be able to accomplish together.

Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King, said-

We are excited to be entering into this Acquisition with Activision Blizzard. Since 2003, we have built one of the largest player networks on mobile and Facebook, with 474 million monthly active users in the third quarter 2015, and our talented team has created some of the most successful mobile game franchises. 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. 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.

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Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative