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Activision Blizzard purchases King.com (Candy Crush Saga) for $5.9 billion

Z

ZombieSupaStar

Member
Averon said:
So, in a span for about 2-3 years they spent ~14 billion dollars.

I expect that level of spending from a Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, or General Electric. Never thought Activision-Blizzard had that much scratch.
Click to expand...

now we know where all the WoW money went over the years!

oh and a tf2 knock off too....i guess....
 
T

Thorakai

Member
KnightHart said:
This is also whats getting me

Jesus Christ how much money did Activision store away for crazy shit like this? COD really makes them THAT much money?
Click to expand...

They also publish Destiny and Skylanders. Plus Blizzard stuff. All pretty big franchises, not to mention all the franchises of yore that they milked to death like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk. Activision is pretty good at making a small amount of highly successful blockbuster franchises. Will be cool to see what they try with this move.
 
C

Calm waterfall

Banned
There seem to be a lot of misunderstanding regarding this move. For Activision it is life essential to enter into mobile gaming. The price might be huge but, for Activision it is better than being none existent in mobile. Besides this is not some short term move that is done to bolster the bottom line. It is a long term investment which gives Activision a huge foothold into mobile gaming and cements Activision as one of the biggest mobile company and gaming company out there.
 
S

Scientist Supreme!

Banned
Fury451 said:
All it takes is the next craze game for players to move on, but some have longer staying power than others.
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So like the traditional video game market?

True Fire said:
Which is why Candy Crush is a ticking time bomb. Activision's best bet would be to completely milk Candy Crush dry and then close the studio (I like to call it the EA method), which makes sense financially, but is a pretty horrendous tactic for an entertainment company



The rise and fall of Zynga.
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I'll take your word on it.
 
G

Grisby

Member
NPBBjE9.gif


So much money.

Damn. I don't even think I've ever seen gameplay from Candy Crush.
 
N

neogaffer1

Banned
EmCeeGramr said:
Huh, it never occurred to me that Acti really DOESN'T have any real mobile presence outside of a few COD spinoffs.


Well, didn't.
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they did for a while.

i remember something about tony hawk and guitar hero on my iphone circa 2010 at least

Scientist Supreme! said:
People say this all the time but I never seen anything backing it up.
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temple run, angry birds, draw something, farmville

all of those were massive in their times. now zynga is going under, omgpop got bought by zynga only to have draw something's users drop like a rock only a week or two later, rovio is on the brink of bankruptcy, and when's the last time you heard anything out of imangi?
 
A

ArchedThunder

Banned
I feel like they over paid. Assuming King's bubble doesn't burst it will take like 5 years for the acquisition to pay off, right? That is a dangerously long amount of time in mobile game terms.
 
C

ChasingComets

Member
This is just confusing to me. Putting aside king's uncertain future before this news, this would be making them the single largest game company in the world, but I'm not really seeing the synergy here yet, not even in typical franchise/ip sharing. It's gonna take a while before we can really see where this acquisition will lead.
 
C

chrisPjelly

Member
The hell!? King, a fad centric mobile developer with a shit reputation, is worth more than fucking STAR WARS!? Never thought I'd say this, but I wish you the best of luck Activision
YOU HAD THE MONEY TO BUY STAR WARS WTF
.
 
T

True Fire

Member
I suppose it's also terrifying for a company to have billions of dollars invested in a contracting industry.

This move was one of desperation. They're moving their treasure to the mobile ship before the console ship sails away.

I think it's misguided. Ereaders were supposed to be killing off books, but book sales are skyrocketing and ereader sales are plummeting, because nothing beats the real experience and consumers are going back to books.
 
wapplew

wapplew

Member
Calm waterfall said:
There seem to be a lot of misunderstanding regarding this move. For Activision it is life essential to enter into mobile gaming. The price might be huge but, for Activision it is better than being none existent in mobile. Besides this is not some short term move that is done to bolster the bottom line. It is a long term investment which gives Activision a huge foothold into mobile gaming and cements Activision as one of the biggest mobile company and gaming company out there.
Click to expand...

So they now exist in mobile market then what?
It's no like Candy crash fans will follow what ever King's make next or have an account system or community. What IP King's own worth the long term investment?
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Yaboosh said:
Marvel was at a low point wasn't it?

And Star Wars was a steal.
Click to expand...

The Marvel Studios juggernaut was already rolling when they got bought out. Iron Man 2 was almost ready.
 
G

gundamkyoukai

Member
True Fire said:
I suppose it's also terrifying for a company to have billions of dollars invested in a contracting industry.

This move was one of desperation. They're moving their treasure to the mobile ship before the console ship sails away.

I think it's misguided. Ereaders were supposed to be killing off books, but book sales are skyrocketing and ereader sales are plummeting, because nothing beats the real experience and consumers are going back to books.
Click to expand...

This move is not desperation .
All big gaming companies should have there hands in as many cookie jars as possible.
This is acti way of doing it after failing to get into mobile .
It is stupid to depend on only one part of the industry .
 
F

Fury451

Banned
Scientist Supreme! said:
So like the traditional video game market?


I'll take your word on it.
Click to expand...

It's a lot faster to drop a mobile game for most- they're generally free and as easy as deleting and installing the next one when you become bored. Traditional gaming tries to keep you invested longer, and costs more, microtransactions from mobile not included.

So no, I don't see them being the same, but I can see what you're getting at; it's similar in a broad sense, but the "mechanics" of mobile vs traditional are pretty different IMO.

To the broader point, I'm not sure less invested people really follow game companies, so much as franchises anyways. King in name probably doesn't have nearly the "pull" as Candy Crush itself does; Activision likely isn't as cared for in name by the general population as "Call of Duty" or "Skylanders" either.

It'll be interesting for sure to see how this all pans out though, it's not like Activision are business-stupid or something. They must have a calculated reason for doing this.
 
K

kswiston

Member
At least they can use Saga in the titles of their games if they want.

Yaboosh said:
Marvel was at a low point wasn't it?

And Star Wars was a steal.
Click to expand...

Not really. Disney officially took over Marvel at the end of 2009. Marvel was coming off Iron Man being a big hit the year before.

That said, I think you can make the case that Disney would have ended up paying a good deal more for Marvel if they waited a couple of years. It was a smart buy.
 
S

Scientist Supreme!

Banned
Fury451 said:
It's a lot faster to drop a mobile game for most- they're generally free and as easy as deleting and installing the next one when you become bored. Traditional gaming tries to keep you invested longer, and costs more, microtransactions from mobile not included.

So no, I don't see them being the same, but I can see what you're getting at; it's similar in a broad sense, but the "mechanics" of mobile vs traditional are pretty different IMO.

To a broader point, I'm not sure less invested people really follow game companies, so much as franchises anyways.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Thank you for that point of view.

wapplew said:
Just my guess base on what happen to Ravio.
Click to expand...
Ok. I don't why but I feel like this a smart move in long run.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Anth0ny said:
factor in the fact that the bubble will probably burst in a year or two

this seems insane
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I imagine that it's less to do with Candy Crush and more to do with having the name recognition of King and using an existing foundation to get into the mobile market
 
zeopower6

zeopower6

Member
Woah @ this amount of money. I wonder just how they expect to make anything from this.

Maybe milk the current addicted userbase for all they're worth?
 
C

ChasingComets

Member
ArchedThunder said:
I feel like they over paid. Assuming King's bubble doesn't burst it will take like 5 years for the acquisition to pay off, right? That is a dangerously long amount of time in mobile game terms.
Click to expand...

At 26% premium to market cap is average (even on the slightly lower side) for tech acquisitions like this, barring arguments that king entertainment is overvalued to begin with. But again, asides from diversification for activision into mobile I don't see any clear or obvious synergies from this acquisition.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
I wonder if Activision is so sure of itself that they think it'll manage to rope in the whales of mobile gaming to make back that money.
 
J

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
LiK said:
Uh wut
Click to expand...

You can say that again. This is totally unexpected.

I wonder if someare preparing for the end game...mobile ruling all for gaming. Sony needs to bring back their mobile store pronto...and open it up more.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
Deku Tree said:
20% premium over share price isn't ridiculous, or desparate.
Click to expand...

If anything, this might just speak to the potiental overvaluation of King. Yes, they're currently bringing in money faster than they could ever spend it. But that's some of the least stable cash flow imaginable - entirely dependent upon the popularity of one style of game. In an industry with MULTIPLE high-profile burnouts.

Maybe Activision just plans to cash it all out? Immediately rush a flood of new games to market with high marketing budgets, and hope a handful start raking in dough at an equivalent rate? But even then, why do they need King to do that?
 
O

Omadahl

Banned
With that kind of scratch, I'd buy an island and begin my evil world domination plans. Not kidding, a freaking skull-shaped island.
 
V

vagabondarts

Member
This feels wrong. How will they ever make their money back?

Maybe they saw what King was working on next and it was some earth shattering thing
 
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