GungHo makes $74 million selling its share of Supercell back to SoftBank
| Date | Type | Companies Involved | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 21, 2014 | acquisition | GungHo Online Entertainment SoftBank Supercell | $344m |
One of the biggest stories of 2013 was SoftBank and GungHo Online's $1.5 billion deal to buy 51 percent of Supercell.
Rather fewer headlines have been raised, however, by the news that GungHo has now sold its 20 percent slice of that 51 percent to SoftBank.
SoftBank owns a majority stake in GungHo so the move doesn't change much in terms of Supercell's ownership.
To some extent it cleans up the financial chain of command.
Closer to home
More significant, perhaps, is the reasoning behind the deal.
Despite having $729 million in cash and generating $150 million during the three months ending 30 June 2014, GungHo also announced it was setting up a local subsidiary in Singapore.
The plan is that this studio will work on new mobile games for emerging markets in southeast Asia.
In combination, GungHo will invest around $300 million to acquire content for publishing.
To that extent, the extraordinary profit of $73 million it will generate from the sale of its Supercell shares will come in rather handy.
[source: Serkan Toto]
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