Activision Blizzard secures 11.6% stake in social casino developer PlayStudios
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Activision Blizzard has clarified a filing that was made today concerning a stake made in social casino developer Playstudios.
"Activision Blizzard did not invest $100 million into Playstudios nor increase its investment in the company," said a spokesperson for the company.
"We owned an interest in the original Playstudios that was recently party to a merger with a listed entity. As a result, we received shares in the new entity and are now disclosing that ownership as required by the SEC."
Original Story: Activision Blizzard has acquired an 11.6 per cent stake in social casino developer Playstudios for approximately $100 million.
According to a new filing (spotted by Nike Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad), the US giant looks to be moving further into the mobile market with this latest purchase. PlayStudios previously held partnerships with Activision Blizzard subsidiary King, when the latter entered the social casino genre in 2017.
Based in Burlingame and founded in 2011, Playstudios primarily creates casino games for the mobile platform, although it does publish on browser too. These games include Pop Slots, MyVegas Slots, MyVegas Blackjack and My Konami Slots.
Attracting investors
Playstudios announced in February this year that it would go public after merging with Acies Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal is expected to value the Californian firm at $1.1 billion, and as a result, has clearly attracted some investors.
At the time, PlayStudios founder, chairman and CEO Andrew Pascal commented on the decision to go public:
"From our inception, we set out to create wonderfully compelling games that were free-to-play and offered real-world rewards,” he said.
“We’ve now demonstrated the positive, long-term impact of this value proposition with our current portfolio of apps, and we’re poised to carry that success into new products and new game genres
Not to mention, Take-Two Interactive acquired Serbian developer Nordeus for $378 million only last month too.
