Activision Blizzard gobbles up Candy Crush Saga developer for $5.9 billion

Activision must know something we don’t know (or they just really like candy), because they are ready to drop nearly $6 billion on King Digital.  King is best known for the Candy Crush Saga franchise.

We’re guessing that Activision is looking to build out their mobile presence, and apparently King is still a very successful, profitable studio.

Read on for some of the announcement from the company.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision Blizzard”) and King Digital Entertainment plc (“King”) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which ABS Partners C.V. (“ABS Partners”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of King for $18.00 in cash per share, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion (the “Acquisition”). The $18.00 per share purchase price implies a 20% premium over King’s 30 October 2015 closing price, a 26% premium over King’s 30 October 2015 enterprise value (which excludes net cash), a 23% premium over King’s one month volume weighted average price per share and a 27% premium over King’s three month volume weighted average price per share. The boards of directors of both Activision Blizzard and King unanimously approved the Acquisition, which is being implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement under Irish law. The Acquisition is subject to approval by King’s shareholders and the Irish High Court, clearances by the relevant antitrust authorities and other customary closing conditions, and it is currently expected that the Acquisition will be completed by Spring 2016.

Activision Blizzard believes that the addition of King’s highly-complementary business will position Activision Blizzard as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, and positions the company for future growth. The combined company will have a world-class interactive entertainment portfolio of top-performing franchises, including two of the top five highest-grossing mobile games in the U.S. (Candy Crush Saga, Candy Crush Soda Saga), the world’s most successful console game franchise (Call of Duty), and the world’s most successful personal computing franchise (World of Warcraft), as well as such well known franchises as Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo and Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero, Skylanders and Destiny, along with over 1,000 game titles in its library. Activision Blizzard expects that this leading content, together with expertise across subscription, upfront purchase, free-to-play and micro-transaction business models will enhance Activision Blizzard’s position as one of the world’s most successful interactive entertainment companies. During the last twelve months ended 30 September 2015, Activision Blizzard had non-GAAP revenues of $4.7 billion and King had adjusted revenues of $2.1 billion. During the same period Activision Blizzard had adjusted EBITDA of $1.6B and King had adjusted EBITDA of $0.9 billion. During the last twelve months ended 30 September 2015, Activision Blizzard had GAAP revenues of $4.9 billion and King had IFRS revenues of $2.1 billion. During the same period, Activision Blizzard had GAAP net income of $1.1 billion, and King had IFRS profit of $0.6 billion.