Activision Buys King [Candy Crush] For $5.9 Billion
Candy Crush is one of the most lucrative games in the world, earning some $1.33 billion in revenue in 2014 alone according to a King financial statement. The studio, which operates Candy Crush and a number of similar games including Bubble Witch and Farm Heroes, grossed $529 million in the second quarter of 2015. They’ve also got access to a HUGE network of casual gamers that Activision can now access for all sorts of purposes.
Also, as Activision points out in a press release, this gives them a pretty solid monopoly on The Biggest Brands In Gaming:
Activision Blizzard believes that the addition of King’s highly-complementary business will position Activision Blizzard as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, and positions the company for future growth. The combined company will have a world-class interactive entertainment portfolio of top-performing franchises, including two of the top five highest-grossing mobile games in the U.S. (Candy Crush Saga®, Candy Crush Soda Saga™), the world’s most successful console game franchise (Call of Duty®), and the world’s most successful personal computing franchise (World of Warcraft®), as well as such well known franchises as Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, StarCraft®, and Diablo® and Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero®,Skylanders® and Destiny, along with over 1,000 game titles in its library.
Activision's hold on the casual gaming market has just drastically increased, and this huge acquisition for such a large amount of money may only spell profits for their future.
I would like to point out though, this acquisition price is absolutely insane.
Disney acquired Marvel for $4 Billion back in 2009, one of the biggest super hero brands in existence.
Sounds like Activision just had some strangely expensive taste in Candy.
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