- Social game developer Zynga Inc (NASDAQ: ZNGA) announced this week that it has entered into an agreement to buy 80% of Istanbul-based Rollic for $168 million in cash. These are the details.
Social game developer Zynga Inc (NASDAQ: ZNGA) announced this week that it has entered into an agreement to buy 80% of Istanbul-based Rollic for $168 million in cash. This acquisition is expected to close on October 1, 2020.
The final upfront transaction consideration will also include customary closing adjustments. And over the next three years, Zynga will acquire the remaining 20% in equal installments at valuations based on specific profitability goals.
Rollic is a mobile game developer and publisher with a portfolio of popular hyper-casual games that have been downloaded over 250 million times. And with this acquisition, Zynga enters the hyper-casual market – one of the largest and fastest-growing gaming categories on mobile. And Zynga adds a highly talented team and an extensive network of external developers. Zynga said that Rollic will meaningfully increase its audience and grow our advertising business.
Launched in December 2018 by Burak Vardal, Deniz Basaran, and Mehmet Can Yavuz, Rollic is a hyper-casual publisher and game developer based in Istanbul, Turkey. And eight of Rollic’s games have reached #1 or #2 top free downloaded games in the U.S. App Store and their latest releases Go Knots 3D and Tangle Master 3D were the top two most downloaded games in the U.S. App Store in Q2 2020. Plus Rollic’s titles currently have over 5 million mobile daily active users (DAUs) and 65 million mobile monthly active users (MAUs).
KEY QUOTES:
“We are excited to expand into the hyper-casual category with the acquisition of Rollic, one of the fastest-growing hyper-casual developers and publishers worldwide in 2020, led by an incredibly creative team. With Rollic, we are meaningfully growing our audience, expanding and diversifying our global advertising business, and adding to our game pipeline and developer network. Zynga and Rollic are well-positioned to grow faster together.”
— Frank Gibeau, Chief Executive Officer of Zynga
“The Rollic team is proud to be joining Zynga. Our expertise in hyper-casual is a seamless fit for Zynga’s proficiency in product management, data science, ad monetization, and world-class publishing. With Rollic’s robust slate of existing and new hyper-casual games joining Zynga’s portfolio, we look forward to advancing our collective mission to connect the world through games.”
— Burak Vardal, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rollic
