In recent years, the video game industry has entered an era of concentration, in which every major player hopes to buy back almost everything that moves. The editor Take-Two brings us the proof today by offering itself a heavyweight of the mobile game for a record sum.
If you thought that Microsoft’s takeover of ZeniMax in 2020 was going to allow an entire industry to ease off stratospheric buyouts, you were quite wrong. It must be said that since the (failed) attempt to acquire Codemasters, Take-Two must have had a few billion dollars to spend more or less quickly. Since the giant Electronic Arts had stolen the bet from him, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto wants to afford Zynga, specializing in mobile games, for the tidy sum of $ 12.7 billion.
Take-Two takes it all
The company founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco has made a name for itself thanks to the success of a certain Farmville, released in 2009 via the social network Facebook, before meeting with success via its Zynga Poker mobile games. Ironically, Zynga had also entered a phase of redemptions, since the studios Echtra Games, Chartboost and StarLark had fallen into its purse only in 2021, for some 800 million dollars.
To hope to close the deal, Take-Two intends to seduce Zynga shareholders, who will be offered compensation of $ 9.86 per share, including $ 6.36 in Take-Two share, according to information from the Wall Street Journal. Following the announcement, Zynga stock was up 44% at the opening of the NASDAQ. For its part, Take-Two lost 14% …
The dark side of mobile gaming
Unsurprisingly, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was obviously delighted with this announcement, which will make his group a new heavyweight in mobile gaming, even though Zynga suffered losses amounting to $ 430 million in 2020. , despite 2 billion turnover over the same period:
This transaction will significantly diversify our business and establish our leadership position in mobile gaming, the fastest growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry. VSThis strategic combination will bring together our best console and PC licenses from a market-leading mobile platform. We look forward to welcoming Zynga to the Take-Two family in the coming months.
This juicy operation will allow the publisher to see the share of revenue due to mobile games increase from 12% to 50% by the next fiscal year. It still has to be accepted by the shareholders of the two companies concerned and the market regulatory authorities. Everyone will have to come to an agreement before June 30, 2022.
