fbpx
News

Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two buys mobile game dev Social Point for $250 million

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, Civilization and NBA 2K, is buying mobile game developer Social Point for $250 million USD.

The New York-based game giant funded the purchase using cash on hand and offered a potential additional sum of $25.9 million in cash and common stock if future financial goals are met.

Social Point, located in Barcelona, is known for titles like Dragon City and Monster Legends, which together have had over 180 million downloads across iOS and Android. The company has consistently been profitable for nearly four years, with revenues growing 29 per cent from 2013 to 2016.

Take-Two said that for the 12-month-period ending on December 31st, 2016, Social Point generated net revenue of $90.8 million and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of $19.9 million.

This move is a notable one from Take-Two, which was primarily known for its PC and console games. Mobile games are an incredibly lucrative market for publishers to get involved in, with the total market size for this sector estimated at $40 billion in 2016.

“With the acquisition of Social Point, Take-Two has further diversified its business, expanded its portfolio of owned intellectual property, and significantly enhanced its position in the fast-growing free-to-play mobile gaming space,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two in a statement. “The experienced team at Social Point shares our commitment to delighting consumers with high-quality entertainment, and we believe that Social Point’s deeply-engaging mobile offerings will be a perfect complement to our business.”

This follows recent endeavours from other companies to get into mobile gaming. Following Super Mario Run, Nintendo announced plans to release two to three smartphone games a year. Gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer also ventured into mobile with its purchase of Robin smartphone maker Nextbit.

Via: Take-Two Interactive

Related Articles

Comments