Keywords Studios acquires Wizcorp

April 23, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, a technical services provider to the video games industry, has acquired Wizcorp Inc. for JPY 120 million from Ankama SAS and Silicon Studio Corporation (the “Sellers”).

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Wizcorp develops games on behalf of others mainly in the mobile space, with particular expertise in HTML5 and other mobile technologies.  Wizcorp was established in 2008 and has provided game development as a service to a wide variety of Japanese publishers and developers such as LINE, Square Enix, Avex, Yahoo Japan, and Bandai Namco, as well as undertaking game development for its parent company, Ankama.

Wizcorp’s 35-person strong team, led by CEO Guillaume Hansali, is made up of software engineers and artists from around the world. With annual revenues of JPY 310m, it is well established in the fast-paced Japanese mobile development market.

The business has not made a profit under its existing ownership structure. Keywords expect it to be able to achieve margins at similar levels to Keywords’ existing Engineering Service line once it builds scale and is aligned with their existing operations.

Christopher Kennedy, Regional Managing Director – Asia of Keywords Studios commented: “We look forward to replicating the success of our previous transaction with our long-standing client, Ankama, which saw us acquire their 23 people strong captive player support operation in Manila in March 2016 before building it into a multi-client player support hub that now employs 700 people. We see a strong opportunity to accelerate Wizcorp’s growth by building on its existing services for some of Ankama’s game development needs and providing it with opportunities to work with Keywords’ extensive client base.”

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