The combined company with more than 500 million monthly active users will increase the company’s potential to reach bigger audiences around the world, he added. During the last twelve months Activision Blizzard had revenues of $4.7 billion and King had adjusted revenues of $2.1 billion.
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Activision already owns one of the biggest gaming franchises in Call of Duty, in addition to Destiny and huge properties such as World of WarCraft and StarCraft as a result of its merger with Blizzard in 2008.
Activision has agreed to pay $18 in cash per King share which is a premium of 16 percent to King’s closing price of $15.54 on Monday in New York. Tommy Palm, the mastermind behind Candy Crush Saga, left the company in January to start Resolution Games, a VR-focused entertainment firm. The studio, which operates Candy Crush and a number of similar games including Bubble Witch and Farm Heroes, grossed $529 million in the second quarter of 2015.
Over the past couple of years we’ve seen a few pretty zany acquisition deals, but we figured it was going to be pretty tough for anyone to top Facebook’s purchase of the incredibly talented, although incredibly unproven, Oculus VR – a deal that promises to put virtual reality for the masses on the fast track to major success.
In announcing the deal, Activision reported a profit of 21 cents a share, compared with 23 cents a year earlier. Well since you are reading this, you’d probably know that the game is now a property of someone else, but bleh! who cares! The Activision bid price of $18 is 20 percent below the $22.50 paid by investors in King’s 2014 initial public offering.
Activision and King are now in bed together.
For King Digital, the deal will position it well for the next phase of the company’s evolution and benefit both its players and employees, according to its CEO, Riccardo Zacconi.
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After the acquisition, King Digital will continue to be led by Zacconi, creative head Sebastian Knutsson and Chief Operating Officer Stephane Kurgan, the statement said. “We have two teams that, together, will have an incredible footprint, innovative technology, and leadership across platforms, and unique, established IPs to delight one of the largest networks of players in the world”.
