The Saga Continues
Tencent joins Netmarble consortium in bid for Nexon
Deal could be made official as soon as February 21st
Back Of The Net
Miniclip acquires Head Ball 2 dev Masomo
Studio's flagship IP has racked up over 60 million downloads to date
Learn
Indian learning platform Byju’s buys out US games firm Osmo for $120 million
Osmo will help the online education firm craft learning content for younger students
China Vs South Korea
South Korea’s Kakao considers $9bn Nexon bid
Potentially one of the companies biggest acquisitions
Big Deal
Israel’s Taptica acquired US digital ads firm RhythmOne for $176 million
Deal expected to close in April, taking RhythmOne off the London Stock Exchange
Consolidation
UK's Sumo Digital acquires Red Kite Games
Follows purchases of CCP Newcastle and The Chinese Room in 2018
Nex-marble
Netmarble forming consortium to acquire Nexon
Serious contender for $9bn-valued publisher
Analytics
FanAI acquires esports analytics and middleware firm Waypoint Media
FanAI gains access to Waypoint Media’s range of trackers, data and APIs
Deal
Unity acquires games chat platform Vivox
Text and audio comms tool has been used in Fortnite, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, and League of Legends
Substance Deal
Adobe picks up Substance Designer firm Allegorithmic
Tools to be integrated into the creative cloud
Big Spender
Fortnite developer Epic acquires Agog Labs and 3Lateral
Company continues to splash its cash
Super Acquisition
Playtika continues M&A activity with purchase of casual card game dev Supertreat
Comes a month after Wooga deal
Heading North
Rebellion acquires Yorkshire studio TickTock Games
Developer to become Rebellion North
It’s Always Sunny
Keywords acquires marketing services outfit Sunny Side Up for $4.3m
Clients for Quebec City outfit include Ubisoft, EA and Eidos
Fresh Deal
Gameloft acquires SongPop trivia game maker FreshPlanet
CEO Mathieu Nouzareth will continue on in role
Check
Mobile acquisition and management firm Maple Media snaps up Banana & Co’s mobile games portfolio
Games include Checkers, Hearts, Mahjong Match! and Sudoku
Acquired
Mobile measurement company Adjust purchases Acquired.io
Acquired.io’s technology set to be fully integrated with Adjust by H2 2019
Strategy
PlayRaven leaves Eve: War of Ascension to CCP after joining Rovio’s flock
CCP London will take over the development of the galactic MMO tie-in
Big Deal
Social casino giant Playtika acquires Pearl’s Peril dev Wooga
German studio finds a buyer after self-proclaimed 'tough two years'
Joining The Flock
Angry Birds creator Rovio snaps up Finnish dev PlayRaven
Rovio claims the move will help them strengthen their presence in strategy games
All In
Who could be top dog in the fight to acquire Zynga?
We speculate on the potential suitors if any deal were to take place
Deal Space
World of Tanks dev Wargaming snaps up UK's Fractured Space studio Edge Case Games
32-person team working on an unannounced new MMO IP
On Tap
Tapjoy on Tapdaq acquisition: “We hadn't found the right combination of great team and differentiated tech until now”
Tapjoy SVP of strategy, corporate and business development fills us in on the decision to acquire mediation platform Tapdaq
Out
Goodgame founders relinquish leadership positions following Stillfront deal
Doctors Kai and Christian Wawrzinek to focus on new roles as Stillfront shareholders
Tap Tap
Tapjoy acquires ad mediation and app monetisation platform Tapdaq
Tapdaq by Tapjoy will team up with its new owner’s London office to work on its Maximum Impact Platform
Acquisition Reality
Admix buys media site VRFocus and aims to rehire staff
Publication looked set to close earlier this month when all employees were laid off
Double Trouble
THQ Nordic acquires Goat Simulator dev Coffee Stain and Wreckfest maker Bugbear
A steady string of purchases leave the publisher in a strong end-of-quarter position
Brains
Live ops specialist DECA Games acquires Zombie Catchers from Helsinki's Two Men and a Dog
The game's original Finnish developer will move on to developing new titles
Tech
Swedish games studio Bublar Group acquires VR/AR outfit Vobling for $5.5 million
Stockholm-based mixed reality developer will use the increased size to push production on next year's Hello Kitty AR project
Dead On
Chinese outfit GAEA snaps up 20% stake in Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour Interactive
The pair are currently co-developing a Game of Thrones game for mobile
Building Blox
Roblox acquires app performance start-up PacketZoom to boost output on mobile
PacketZoom Co-founder and CTO Chetan Ahuja will join Roblox at part of the deal
Perfecto
Perforce snaps up Cloud-based software developer Perfecto Mobile
The acquisition is expected to close this year
Acquisitions With Friends?
Report: Zynga attracts takeover interest
Developer has received preliminary approaches but no formal talks have taken place, sources claim
Ar
Truly Social Games acquires Vancouver AR studio Cooper’s New Reality Garage
Augmented reality specialist will rebrand as Truly Social Games Vancouver
Service
Epic Games acquires security and service provider Kamu
Kamu brings its speciality in game security and community building to Fortnite and Unreal developers
Big Deal
Advantage Solutions acquires HyprMX owner Jun Group in deal that brings brands and mobile games closer together
HyprMX general manager and senior vice president Dan Laughlin tells us what the deal means for the company and the mobile games industry at large
Fishing
Digital marketing outfit Jellyfish knuckles down on app space with ASO Co purchase
Among ASO Co’s clientele are Spotify, eBay and Twitter
Invested
Tencent invests $318 million in Chinese video-sharing company Bilibili
Publisher acquires 12.3 per cent of shares in a company that dabbles in running League of Legends and Overwatch esports teams
Acquisition News
Animoca Brands picks up majority stake in AI accelerator Zeroth for $1m
Publisher underwrites $2m worth of investment into Zeroth SPC
Stellar
Hugo Games picks up Dawn of the Dragons dev 5th Planet for $737,000
An extra $160,000 will go towards funding a sequel to the studio's Dawn of the Dragons sequel.
Nostalgic Deal
Liquid Media snaps up 65 retro game IPs from Throwback for $1 million
Titles include All Star Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club, NHL Breakaway and College Slam
Acquisition News
Chinese tutoring services provider snaps up chidren's apps developer Dr. Panda
Companies to work on "new models for future education"
Road To Investments
Scopely swoops for Glu’s Rob Ricca to lead M&A activity
Rob Ricca previously led M&A at Glu Mobile, during which time it purchased Crowdstaf and Plain Vanilla
M&a
Stillfront acquires Imperia Online in deal worth up to $32 million
Initial deal worth $11.7m but could rise based on performance
Surprise!
Keywords acquires The Trailer Farm and Sound Lab
Firm made $128.6m for the six months ending June 30th
Acquisition News
UK publisher PlayStack acquires Finnish developer Hisome
Studio renamed PlayStack Oy and will be responsible for development and finding new partners
Bought
AppLovin acquires in-app header bidding company MAX Inc
Discoverability platform expands services to include the new header bidding solution
East Meets West
South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss acquires Eve Online studio CCP for $425 million
Icelandic studio claims it will maintain independence while supporting Pearl Abyss' current and future projects
Super Purchase
Nielsen snaps up market research outfit SuperData
No figure put on the deal
Building A Blockchain Strategy
Animoca Brands acquires The Sandbox dev Pixowl for $5 million
Betting on blockchain user generated content