Playtika, a renowned social gaming developer, signed a deal with Innplay Labs. The developer will acquire the company from Israel for the amount of up to $300 million.
The latest acquisition:
The initial price was $80 million, but various additional clauses increased the price of this acquisition, making it up to a few times higher.
Many details of this deal aren’t released, but there might be a reason for that – Playtika claimed that the companies still hadn’t agreed on several conditions of the deal.
Innplay Labs is one of the most famous companies in Israel. It was founded in 2019, and since then, its portfolio has been filled with popular titles such as Water Ride, Brix Master, and Animal Kingdom.
According to the source, Robert Antokol, CEO of Playtika, thinks the “strategic” expansion of the company’s already impressive portfolio will be greatly beneficial. He claimed: “The acquisition of Innplay Labs represents another strategic expansion of our portfolio with a promising and innovative growth franchise in the Luck Battle genre.”
Ore Gilron, the CEO of Innplay, has a similar opinion. He stated: “In 2019, Innplay Labs was formed with the goal of shaping the next generation of mobile gaming. Four years later, our robust team of talented, highly skilled game operators have put their passions together to create an outstanding game product with rich, engaging content, providing our audience with a uniquely entertaining gaming experience.”
Huge steps towards expansion:
Playtika started strong in this quarter. After the acquisition of the Youda Games portfolio, which cost €81.3 million, Innplay Labs was the next step in this rapid expansion.
When it comes to the Youda Games, Playtika is acquiring the whole portfolio of games, including hit releases such as Governor of Poker, the social card-themed game, and other gambling-themed releases. The acquisition is planned to be completed in the third quarter of the year.
However, not all acquisitions were successful – the company failed to acquire Rovio Entertainment, the developer of the worldwide famous Angry Bird game. In the end, Sega Sammy Holdings gave a better offer and finished the acquisition of the famous company.
Drop in revenue and cost reduction:
Despite signing the important partnership and acquisition agreements, the second quarter of the year wasn’t all a success for Playtika. The revenue decreased by 2.5% compared to the previous year, and there was a $642.8 million decrease in three months to 30 June.
The social casino games revenue decreased by 9.9%. But not all revenues dropped – the casual games revenue was increased by 3.7%, as well as in the Blitz Bingo games, where the revenue was increased by 6.3%.
However, the company reduced the costs, which led to an increase in the net profit of 340.5%. On top of that, EBITDA increased by 6.7%.
