Activision Blizzard is purchasing "Candy Crush" developer King Digital Entertainment.
One of the largest buyout in the gaming industry is in tow as Activision Blizzard which owns the "Call of Duty" series will be shelling out $5.9 billion total equity value for King Digital Entertainment, more than half of Microsoft Inc's $2.5 billion purchase of Mojang last year, Tribune reported.
"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," Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard said.
Business Insider added, this move could position Activision Blizzard on the mobile platform where it only earned five percent revenue on the second quarter of 2015, while 54 percent came from console games, 21 percent from online, and 14 percent from PC gaming. Whereas, King Digital Entertainment reported a total of $490 million revenue from web and mobile platform.
The buyout might also broaden Activision Blizzard's "reach of games". Reportedly, King Digital's active players comprises of 60% female, when combined to the prior's active players will bring the two companies an estimated 500 million monthly players.
"We believe that the acquisition will position us very well for the next phase of our company's evolution. We will combine our expertise in mobile and free-to-play with Activision Blizzard's world-class brands ... to bring the best games in the world to millions of players worldwide," said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King, quoted by Fortune.
Activision Blizzard will be paying King Digital Entertainment $18 in cash for each share- 16 percent higher than $17.73 to which it was trading on Tuesday. Analysts predict that investors weren't expecting a higher bid than of Activision Blizzard's, Guardian reported.
