Keywords Studios buys Spain's Sonox Audio Solutions

Keywords Studios, which provides technical services to the video games industry, has acquired Sonox Audio Solutions from its founder, Francisco Barreras Benavente, in a deal that will strengthen its audio services.

Sonox has three recording studios in Madrid and manages a “well-established” network of translators, voice actors, audio engineers and voice directors in Spain. It also works with partner studios in Mexico and Brazil to provide audio and localisation services for those territories.

It already provides certain services to Keywords and the acquisition will enable the group to capture the margins on those services.

Following the acquisition, Francisco Barreras Benavente and the Sonox management team will remain in the group.

Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to be earnings-enhancing next year, Keywords will pay €500,000 in cash and issue the sellers 24,881 new ordinary shares in the company.

Fulvio Sioli, Keywords Studios’ regional managing director for Europe, said: "Sonox has been working with Synthesis Iberia for some years and with a growing portfolio of leading game publishers as its clients. The merging of Sonox, Synthesis and Kite Team in Madrid presents a unique opportunity to establish clear leadership in this key market for games audio and text localisation. The facilities, talent and financial strength of our audio offering in Spain is truly unrivalled.”

At 1300 GMT, the shares were up 2.2% to 514p.