Activision Blizzard to buy Candy Crush creator King in all-cash deal
Activision Blizzard announced it would buy-out Irish rival King Digital Entertainment to gain a footprint in the market for mobile gaming in an all-cash transaction valued at $5.9bn (3.8bn pounds).
Activision Blizzard Inc.
$94.42
11:00 08/03/24
King Digit.Entmt Dl-00008
€0.00
07:46 20/03/24
Nasdaq 100
17,890.79
12:15 03/05/24
The acquistion was to be carried out as a scheme of arrangement under Irish law and was expected to complete by Spring 2016.
The two companies had combined twelve-month trading revenues of $6.8bn and operating profits of $2.5bn.
Activision highlighted how the new company would have over half a billion highly engaged monthly active users in 196 countries.
London-based King was the group behind the well-known Candy Crush Saga games.
King´s shareholders were set to receive $18 a share, representing a 20% premium over the stock´s closing price on 30 October.
That was far below the $22.50 at which King´s shares started trading on the NYSE in March 2014; with the company´s dependence on sales from Candy Crush Saga seen as one of the company´s greatest weaknesses.
It still derived over a third of its revenues from that game, which was launched in 2012.
The buy-out was expected to increase Activision Blizzard’s 2016 non-GAAP revenues and EPS by approximately 30%.
Stock in King ended 13.9% higher in after-hours trading on the NYSE at $17.7.