Activision, the creator of Call of Duty, has acquired King.com, the maker of Candy Crush, for $5.9bn.
The deal will bring together the two video gaming companies and will allow Activision to strengthen its mobile gaming offer which is now expected to serve half a billion players a month following the combination according to Bobby Kotick, its chief executive.
The Dublin-based games maker will continue to be run by chief executive, Ricardo Zacconi as an independent unit of Activision, it has confirmed.
In discussing the sale, Zacconi explained: "this opens up opportunities we didn't have before."
Reacting to the news of the sale, Fabien Nicolas, Vice President of Marketing Communications & Community at App Annie, commented: "This acquisition highlights the importance of mobile as a key factor of growth for publishers in today’s gaming market. Activision has taken in the past a more reserved approach to mobile, releasing only a handful of titles, like Hearthstone, and mainly using mobile apps as side experiences to their PC & console games. In the meantime, global competitors such as EA or Tencent have embraced this new sector. However, this acquisition clearly demonstrates a new commitment to mobile for Activision as well as the will to diversify their IP portfolio to a more global female audience."
According to Brand Finance figures, here are 10 other media and tech companies that Activision could have bought for less:
Lenovo ($5,274bn)
EMC ($4,680bn)
Twitter ($4,366bn)
Adobe ($4,223bn)
Yahoo ($4,148bn)
20th Century Fox ($3,597bn)
Expedia.com ($3,567bn)
WeChat ($3,553bn)
LinkedIn ($3,454bn)
HBO ($3.241bn)
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