King Digital Entertainment was acquired by Activision Blizzard for 5.9 billion dollars. What’s the big deal behind that and what does it mean to you? Do you like playing the popular online game Candy Crush?
King Digital Entertainment is the company behind Candy Crush. And now they’re no longer they’re own entity. It’s the biggest gaming acquisition since Microsoft/XBox bought out Minecraft last year. You see, Activision Blizzard’s bread and butter comes from console games. They want to make it big in the mobile market. They believe paying for one of the most popular mobile games out there will make it happen. This is an all cash transaction. This deal will give both entities a combined 500 million users in around 200 countries. That covers most of the world. According to Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick, this deal would make Activision Blizzard have the third highest social media audience membership behind You Tube and Facebook. The acquisition should be official by early 2016. All it takes is approval from 75% of King’s board of directors in Ireland. Activision is confident this will happen.
King Digital Entertainment was founded in Sweden back in 2003 and has headquarters in New York City, London and Dublin, Ireland. They’ve produced and released over 200 games in the twelve years since. They gave us popular mobile games like Farm Heroes and Bubble Watch. Candy Crush was released in 2012. That’s what put King Digital on the gaming map and won them gaming respect in the gaming world. That game alone made for a third of King Digital’s revenue. I often get many, many Facebook requests to play Candy Crush. I often turn them down many, many times. Candy Crush isn’t just a video game. Candy Crush is a cultural icon that has done really well. Does King Digital really want to lose control of that to Activision Blizzard? Is any amount of money worth it?