Financial News

Activision Blizzard sweeps up King

By Business & Finance
03 November 2015
candy crush m01229

The world’s most successful standalone interactive entertainment company, Activision Blizzard, has announced an agreement to acquire King Digital Entertainment in a deal worth $5.9bn.

Activision Blizzard develops games based on some of the most beloved entertainment franchises, including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft. Its games are played in 196 countries worldwide.

King Digital Entertainment is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world, which has hugely popular franchises including Candy Crush, Farm Heroes, Pet Rescue and Bubble Witch.

We have 340 million average monthly unique users as of second quarter 2015 across web, social and mobile platforms.

Currently, its games are played in 196 countries worldwide and the addition of King Digital Entertainment further positions Activision Blizzard for growth across platforms.

The company today also announced strong financial results for the third quarter of 2015. For the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $990 million, as compared with $753 million for the third quarter of 2014.

Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, said: “We continue to benefit from our focus on creating the world’s best interactive entertainment. Our incredibly talented employees around the world once again delivered great content and strong financial results.

He continued: “Mobile gaming is the largest and fastest-growing opportunity for interactive entertainment and we will have one of the world’s most successful mobile game companies and its talented teams providing great content to new customers, in new geographies throughout the world. King has a truly fantastic management team and over 1,600 incredibly talented employees and we are excited to welcome them into the Activision Blizzard family.”

Business & Finance recently discusses the Irish games industry in an article featuring industry experts David Sweeney and Andrew Deegan. Click here to view the article in full.

Photo: m01229