Activision Blizzard buys Candy Crush Maker King Digital for $5.9billion

Activision Blizzard, an American games developer and publisher, has announced that it will be buying King Digital, the producer of popular mobile game Candy Crush.

According to Activision Blizzard in a press statement,

ABS Partners C.V. (“ABS Partners”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of King for $18.00 in cash per share, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion (the “Acquisition”). The $18.00 per share purchase price implies a 20% premium over King’s 30 October 2015 closing price, a 26% premium over King’s 30 October 2015 enterprise value (which excludes net cash), a 23% premium over King’s one month volume weighted average price per share and a 27% premium over King’s three month volume weighted average price per share.

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, believes that, “The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment. With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.”

Riccardo Zacconi, Chief Executive Officer of King, has this to say about the acquisition, “We are excited to be entering into this Acquisition with Activision Blizzard. Since 2003, we have built one of the largest player networks on mobile and Facebook, with 474 million monthly active users in the third quarter 2015, and our talented team has created some of the most successful mobile game franchises. We believe that the Acquisition will position us very well for the next phase of our company’s evolution and will bring clear benefits to our players and employees. We will combine our expertise in mobile and free-to-play with Activision Blizzard’s world-class brands and proven track record of building and sustaining the most successful franchises, to bring the best games in the world to millions of players worldwide. We are very much looking forward to working with Activision Blizzard. We have two teams that, together, will have an amazing footprint, innovative technology, and leadership across platforms, and unique, established IPs to delight one of the largest networks of players in the world.”

Activision Blizzard is the producer of games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.