Activision acquires King, makers of Candy Crush, for $5.9b
Gaming company Activision Blizzard has agreed to acquire King Digital Entertainment, the makers of popular games like Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion in cash.
The purchase will give Activision Blizzard a chance to delve deep into mobile and social games like never before. It already dominates the PC gaming space with major franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, and it now has 200 more casual titles, including two of the top five highest-grossing mobile games in the US from King.
The combined company has over 1,000 titles in its library, including heavy hitters like Diablo, Destiny and Guitar Hero for consoles.
Until now, Activision hasn’t focused on mobile gaming much — in its second quarter, only $54 million, or 5 percent of its net revenues came from mobile, while consoles games brought in 54 percent and the rest was split between PC and online titles, totalling just over $1 billion.
With its new acquisition, the company will be in a better position to take on its arch rival Electronic Arts in the mobile space. EA claims it already has over 150 million monthly active users on mobile and earned $142 million from its sales last quarter.
➤ Activision to Acquire King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 Billion [King Press Releases]
Originally published at thenextweb.com on November 3, 2015.
