Fusion Corporate Partners

Keywords Studios, a technical services provider to the video games industry, has acquired Studio Gobo Ltd and Electric Square Ltd (a Gobo studio), for up to £26 million from the founders and other members of the management team.

Gobo’s revenue has grown quickly from £6.2m for the year ended 30 September 2017 to an estimated £11.6m for the 12 months ending 31^st July 2018. Underlying pro-forma EBITDA for the same 12 months is expected to be approximately £3.6m.

The total consideration payable is up to £26m. The initial consideration is £10.5m in cash and 254,529 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be issued on the anniversary of completion. The remaining consideration of £11 million is payable in a mix of cash and shares, or all in cash at the discretion of Keywords, subject to achieving an increased EBITDA over the 12-month period following completion.  All of the Sellers are remaining with the business under the continued direction of Gobo CEO, Tony Beckwith.

Gobo provides game development services to video game developers and publishers around the world from its Studio Gobo and Electric Square studios based across three studio locations in Brighton and Hove, UK.

Founded in 201, Gobo employs 170 software engineers, artists, animators, game designers, quality assurance testers and producers. Over the years, Gobo has worked on top games franchises such as Disney Infinity, Ubisoft’s For Honor, and Microsoft’s newest racing game, Miami Street.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Studio Gobo and Electric Square to the Keywords family. By significantly enhancing our game development services in both scale and expertise, these studios together with recently acquired Snowed In, Sperasoft, d3t and GameSim help position Keywords as a go to game development partner and give us ever greater visibility of games in the pipeline, at the outset of their development.”

Ireland, Dublin & UK, Brighton and Hove

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