Keywords Studios acquires Synthesis for up to €18m

April 13, 2016 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords has acquired the Synthesis group of companies. Synthesis provides localisation, audio and localisation testing services to video game developers and publishers. In particular, Keywords is acquiring 100% of the equity share capital of Synthesis Global Solutions SA in Switzerland, Sillabit S.R.L. in Milan, Italy and Synthesis Deutschland GmbH in Hamburg, Germany from the founders. In addition, certain assets and employees of Synthesis’s operations in France, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, US, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea and Japanwill transfer to Keywords.

The Synthesis Group posted pro forma revenues of €16.9 million and PBT of €2.0 million for the year ended 31 December 2015. The Group is paying up to €18 million, of which €1m in cash is contingent on revenue of at least €15 million being achieved in the 12 month period after the acquisition. Of the initial €17 million payable, €10.2 million was paid in cash on completion with the remainder in new Keywords shares to be issued in two equal tranches on the first and second anniversary of the acquisition.

Synthesis founded in Milan in 1995. It has expanded internationally, initially opening branches in Italy and Spain, followed by Germany, the USA and Japan and later extending its presence to France, Brazil, Mexico, Taiwan and Singapore. Founders Max and Luca Reynaud, , and the management team, will remain with the business.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented: “The acquisition of the Synthesis Group represents our largest acquisition to date and, in common with our acquisition in February 2014 of Babel Media, is an important milestone in our consolidation of this highly fragmented market.”

Ireland, Dublin & Italy, Milan

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GSN Games Acquires Idle Gaming 

March 30, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

GSNGamesGSN Games, a provider of social casino games and cash tournaments, has acquired social casino game developer Idle Gaming, whose titles include Fresh Deck Poker, Slots of Fun and Video Poker Tour. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

idlegames“The acquisition of Idle Gaming aligns perfectly with our strategy of leveraging first-rate teams and leading edge technology to create outstanding game experiences for our players,” said Steve Brunell, chief operating officer of GSN. “We are pleased to welcome the top-notch talent of Idle Gaming to GSN Games, and look forward to utilizing our shared talent and technologies to take mobile gaming to the next level.”

Last year, GSN Games acquired Bash Gaming, creator of the hit social bingo game Bingo Bash, which added more than 150 employees and two new offices to the organisation.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Greentube Acquires BlueBat Games 

February 2, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

greentubeGreentube, a developer and provider for internet, mobile, PC and iTV and their parent company, the Novomatic Group, have acquired a controlling interest in the social gaming leader, BlueBat Games. A business founded in 2011 by video game industry veterans Kenny Huang and Tim Harris. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, BlueBat Games enables game developers and casino brands to socialize their games on browser-based and mobile platforms. Blue Bat Games is the creator of Greentube’s turnkey private label social casino marketing platform, Greentube Pro.

bluebat_logo“We worked closely with the BlueBat team on a number of projects in the past year,” said Thomas Graf, CEO of Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions GmbH. “After the launch of Greentube Pro, it became apparent that BlueBat and Greentube’s approach to social gaming were in direct alignment. The Acquisition was the next logical step in our progression.”

UK, London & Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia

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Keywords Studios – early completion of Binari Sonori earn out

January 20, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords, a technical services provider to the video games industry, has agreed with the selling shareholders of Binari Sonori S.R.L to vary the terms of the acquisition agreement bringing to a close the earn out conditions 12 months earlier than originally agreed.  Under the terms of the acquisition, deferred consideration of no more than €4.0m could have been payable calculated by reference to the profit before interest and tax of Binari Sonori in the years to 31st December 2014 and 31st December 2015.

Previous DigiNet reporting: Keywords acquires Binari Sonori in Italy May 9, 2014

binariUnder the terms of the Agreement, the Group has agreed to pay to the Selling Shareholders total deferred consideration of €300,000 which will be satisfied by the issue of 158,250 new ordinary shares of Keywords at a price of 145.47 pence per share (being the volume weighted average price over the five business days immediately preceding the date of this announcement).  

The shares in Keywords issued to the Selling Shareholders will be credited as fully paid and rank pari passu with the existing issued ordinary shares of Keywords when issued.  The Selling Shareholders will be subject to a lock-in period of 12 months with respect to the Consideration Shares, subject to certain exceptions, followed by an orderly market restriction for a further 12 month period.

Ireland, Dublin & Italy, Milan

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Kabam acquires games studios TapZen and Magic Pixel Games

January 13, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

kabam1Kabam has acquired Los Angeles-based games studios TapZen and Magic Pixel Games. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. TapZen and Magic Pixel will be merged into a new Kabam branded Los Angeles studio near Culver City.

TapZen was founded by Mike Verdu in 2012 and worked with Magic Pixel Games to create the bombastic mobile strategy game This Means War!. As part of Kabam, both TapZen and Magic Pixel will continue to build out the company’s strategy game lineup, which already includes franchises including Kingdoms of Camelot, Dragons of Atlantis, and The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, each of which have generated more than $100 million in revenue.

“Welcoming TapZen and Magic Pixel into the Kabam family is another significant milestone for Kabam,” said Co-Founder and CEO Kevin Chou. “The addition of Mike Verdu augments our world-class leadership team, and having a Los Angeles studio will strengthen Kabam’s already-deep relationships with our Hollywood partners.”

The acquisition of TapZen and Magic Pixel bring to nine the number of studios Kabam has acquired since 2010. Earlier acquisitions include of Phoenix Age (2014), Exploding Barrel Games (2013), Gravity Bear, Fearless Studios, Wild Shadow and Balanced World Studio (2012), and Wonderhill (2010).

USA, Los Angeles, CA

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Keywords Studios acquires Alchemic Dream in Canada and Reverb Localização in Brazil

January 7, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, a technical services provider to the global video games industry, has acquired Alchemic Dream Inc. in Canada, a provider of multi-lingual customer support services for the video games industry internationally for CAD$1.25m

In addition, Keywords has completed the acquisition of Reverb Localização – Preparação de Documentos Ltda. in Brazil for to €300k.

Alchemic Dream

alchemicFounded in 2001, Alchemic Dream is based in Shawinigan near Montreal, Canada where it employs 38 people, it also works with remote collaborators in 36 countries. The acquisition provides Keywords Studios with an entry point into the fast growing market for community management services, either within the game, in the game forums or within the wider social media channels. The demand for live operations support services designed to ensure players continue to engage with the game for longer is expanding due to the transition from games as a packaged product, sold through traditional retail stores, to games as a service for mobile, online, or console games.

Keywords Studios will pay a maximum total cash consideration of CAD$1.25m for 100% of Alchemic Dream dependent on certain closing balance sheet related adjustments.

Alchemic Dream’s management accounts for the 10 months to 31 October 2014 show the business achieved revenues of CAD$4.33m and profits before tax of CAD$480k. The accounts for the year to 31 December 2013 show it achieved revenues of CAD$3.7m, a loss before tax of CAD$220k and it had net assets of CAD$0.48m including net debt of CAD$0.2m.

Reverb Localização

ReverbReverb was founded in 2012 and is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has a small team of 5 employees, plus freelance collaborators. The company provides localisation and audio management services for Brazilian Portuguese for some leading games including World of Warcraft and Magic the Gathering. This will be Keywords’ first office in South America.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented on the Alchemic Dream acquisition, “The acquisition of Alchemic Dream provides us with an important point of entry into the increasingly important market of customer care services for the video games industry.”

Commenting on the Reverb Localização acquisition, day said, “We are also pleased to be announcing our first investment in the fast developing game economy in Brazil. Brazilian Portuguese has risen to take its place in our top 5 languages alongside the more established languages of French, Spanish, German and Italian. The acquisition of Reverb provides us with a small but high quality foothold in this important growth market and we expect to be able grow our revenues and improve our margins for this language as a result.

Ireland, Dublin & Canada, Montreal & Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

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Keywords Studios acquires Lakshya Digital in India

October 10, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, a technical services provider to the global video games industry, has acquired Lakshya Digital Pvt. Ltd, a provider of outsourced art services for the video games industry internationally with centres of operation in New Delhi and Pune, India, for a total consideration of $4.0m.

Founded in 2004 and employing 270 people, most of whom are highly trained artists, Lakshya is one of the most recognised brands in the large and highly fragmented market for the provision of outsourced art services to the video games industry. It provides Keywords Studios an entry point into this fast growing market, where the demand for art assets (such as characters, vehicles, landscapes, cityscapes, space ships and weapons) is growing in line with the increase in game content as games on consoles, social media, PCs, tablets and smart phones become more complex and richer in their definition.

Keywords Studios is paying a total of $4.0m in two tranches. 91% of the shares of Lakshya have been acquired for $3.0m in cash. The remaining 9% will be acquired for a total of $1.0m in October 2015, of which up to $400,000 at sole discretion of Keywords will be used to subscribe for shares in Keywords Studios at a price determined by the volume weighted average price per share in the 5 days prior to completion of this second stage. Two of the sellers will each be granted options over 450,000 shares of Keywords at the prevailing market price.

Lakshya’s audited accounts for the year to 31 March 2014 show it achieved revenues of INR 249m ($4.05m); it had net assets of INR 78m ($1.3m) including net debt of INR 9.1m ($0.15m). Underlying PBT after adjusting for a non-continuing activity amounted to INR 23m ($0.37m).

Lakshya’s well-established position with game development studios, particularly in the US and Japan, will open up new sales channels for the Keywords group where the focus is primarily on video game publishers. The business development team of Lakshya will be integrated into the Keywords sales force to further facilitate cross selling between the Group’s extended range of services.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented: “By providing us with an entry point into the large, growing yet fragmented art outsourcing market, the acquisition of Lakshya provides Keywords with additional growth opportunities as well as cost and revenue synergies. It will enable the Group to have earlier involvement in the development cycle of video games titles, it will enable us to share one facility at Gurgaon (New Delhi) where both Lakshya and Babel Media are located and it will provide us with a base from which to expand further in the art outsourcing market.”

UK, & India, New Delhi

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Amazon.com to acquire Twitch

August 25, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

amazonAmazon.com is to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., a live video platform for gamers. Twitch was launched in June 2011 to focus exclusively on live video for gamers. Amazon is paying $970 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2014.
“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

USA, Seattle, WA

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XLMedia acquires un-named Scandinavian website network

July 7, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

XLMediaJersey based XLMedia, a provider of digital performance marketing services, has acquired an un-named Scandinavian website network within the online gaming sector for $2.3 million in cash.

The company said that the network reviews a large number of online casino and poker websites, mainly in Denmark, generating “high value added content”.  The acquisition provides a geographic footprint to XLMedia’s existing Scandinavian presence and extending its reach into Denmark, a fully regulated market.

The acquisition follows two acquisitions of domains in the North American market during H1 2014, also aimed at extending into new territories and further establishing a presence in fully regulated markets.

The Group said it will continue to buy domains and websites as part of its ongoing growth strategy as well as continuing to evaluate an increased presence in fully regulated markets.

Commenting on the acquisition, CEO, Ory Weihs said, “Since our IPO in March this year, we have continued to make good progress with positioning XLMedia to capitalise on the significant growth opportunities in the online gaming sector. This acquisition represents a complementary fit for our business, strengthening our reach in Scandinavia and providing entry into Denmark, a fully regulated territory.”

UK, St Helier, Jersey

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RapidFire acquires the In-Game Advertising Technology of IGA Worldwide

May 27, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

RapidFire Acquires the In-Game Advertising Technology of IGA WorldwideRapidFire, an in-game advertising company, has acquired IGA Worldwide‘s proprietary technology for delivering real-time advertisements inside of video games.

IGA Worldwide’s technology, known as the Radial Network™, enables brands and advertisers to reach gamers playing AAA game titles across console, computer, and mobile video games. Advertisements are streamed in real-time inside of a video game’s 3D environment on objects such as billboards, hoardings, buses, and posters – essentially any object where a gamer is likely to see an advert in real life.
As part of the deal, RapidFire will take ownership of the Radial Network™ ad servers and software development kits, and will immediately replace the pre-existing RapidFire in-game ad serving technology.

“We’re ecstatic about the deal and what it means for RapidFire’s growth,” says Jordan L. Howard, the 23 year old Founder and CEO. “IGA Worldwide was a pioneer in the in-game advertising industry, and spent many years perfecting their ad serving technology. With the Radial Network™ technology we’ll have a much more robust system, and will be able to provide unparalleled service to both our media buying clients and our game developer partners.”

Canada, Vancouver & USA, New York, NY

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