"Candy Crush" invites on Facebook may be irritating, but they certainly are popular. In fact, these invites are so popular that the hit social media game was bought by Activision Blizzard for a whopping $5.9 billion.
According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the maker of the game, King Digital Entertainment, recently reached an agreement with Activision Blizzard on buying out the company.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said, "The huge growth in mobile gaming means with the deal, we will have one of the world's most successful mobile game companies."
The company buying King Digital is popular even during the days of the first Sony PlayStation, but this current generation of gamers may know it through popular titles such as "Call of Duty" and the musical rhythm game "Guitar Hero."
But not only is "Candy Crush" getting a new owner, it will also save Activision from huge amount of taxes. As reported by Bloomberg Business, by using $3.6 billion of cash stored outside of the United States to help finance the acquisition of King Digital Entertainment Plc., the company will save about $1 billion in taxes, according to Robert Willens, a tax expert.
Investors who initially sent Activision shares down as much as 6.3 percent reversed course and is now driving up the price by 3.6 percent to $35.85 at Tuesday's closing in New York.
Activision looks to position itself to also dominate the mobile phone market, as reports are saying that the smartphone-based games are growing. At $18 per share, the biggest American video game maker is paying 20 percent less than King Digital's initial public offering price of $22.50 in March 2014.
The stock had fallen after the IPO on concerns that the company [King Digital] may fail to diversify from its top-selling game and become just a one-hit wonder.
An analyst provided his insight regarding the matter and said that Activision looked at King at a pretty reasonable valuation. It saw the company as a fast way of accelerating its own mobile gaming strategy.
In a similar note by Wired, Activision said in a conference call that its executives are continually looking at opportunities for synergy, touting its huge library of game franchises it has built over 35 years of existence.
Simply put, concerns whether buying King Digital because "Candy Crush" already peaked does not matter. Activision wants in on the mobile gaming market, and it wants to do it quickly, so buying an already successful franchise does not seem like a bad idea.
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