Take-Two has officially completed the Zynga acquisition process, a software house specializing in the development of video games for internet browsers. The cost of the operation, which has become the most expensive ever, exceeding the acquisition of the Finnish production company Supercell by Tencent, is 12.7 billion dollars.
Only the ok from the shareholders of both companies was missing, ok that arrived today. Operation, therefore, concluded. The most expensive takeover record ever, however, won’t last long. Microsoft, in fact, is one step away from acquiring Activision Blizzard for the monstrous figure of 68.7 billion dollars.
Obviously, the ritual declarations could not be missing to sanction the success of the deal. These, those of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick:
We are thrilled to have completed the acquisition of Zynga, a critical step to exponentially increase revenue from mobile advertising, the fastest growing segment in interactive entertainment. This will provide us with substantial synergies between costs and earning opportunities. By combining our exceptional talent, our flow of games and technologies and industry-leading skills, we believe we can take our skills to another level of creativity, quality and innovation.
Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau also wanted to celebrate the closing of the operation with Take-Two: “We are excited about the new generation of mobile and free-to-play titles that we will be making, the diverse range of games and the incredible team we will join in Take-Two.”
At this point, we just have to look closely at the situation to understand what real results an operation of this type will have in the medium / long term. Surely, the company that owns Rockstar Games will receive a lot of support from the casual gaming giant in the creation of titles for mobile devices. Conversely, Zynga may be trying to develop something for consoles.
We will see: with all these acquisitions, the videogame industry is going, more and more convinced, towards an oligopoly that risks destroying those who are left alone.