During the first quarter of T2’s fiscal year 2023, Take-Two will buy all of Zynga’s outstanding shares. This transaction will be worth $12.7 billion and will represent a 64% premium to Zynga’s closing share price on January 7, 2022.
Take-Two and Zynga announced today that they have reached a definitive deal for the latter’s acquisition. According to a Businesswire press release:
This transformative combination unifies two global leaders in the interactive entertainment business and establishes Take-Two as one of the largest and most diversified mobile game publishers in the industry, with $6.1 billion in Pro-forma Net Bookings for the trailing twelve-month period ended September 30, 2021.
Of course, Zynga is no slouch. CSR Racing, Empires & Puzzles, and Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells are just a few of the games produced by this company. Of course, you’re probably familiar with them from their biggest hit, FarmVille.
Strauss Zelnick, Chairman, and CEO of Take-Two Interactive announced the following about the imminent deal:
We are thrilled to announce our transformative transaction with Zynga, which significantly diversifies our business and establishes our leadership position in mobile, the fastest-growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry.
This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity. Zynga also has a highly talented and deeply experienced team, and we look forward to welcoming them into the Take-Two family in the coming months.
As we combine our complementary businesses and operate at a much larger scale, we believe that we will deliver significant value to both sets of stockholders, including $100 million of annual cost synergies within the first two years post-closing and at least $500 million of annual Net Bookings opportunities over time.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Zynga Frank Gibeau had the following to say regarding the deal:
Combining Zynga’s expertise in mobile and next-generation platforms with Take-Two’s best-in-class capabilities and intellectual property will enable us to further advance our mission to connect the world through games while achieving significant growth and synergies together.
I am proud of our team’s hard work to deliver a strong finish to 2021, with one of the best performances in Zynga’s history. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Take-Two that shares our commitment to investing in our players, amplifying our creative culture, and generating more value for stockholders. With this transformative transaction, we begin a new journey that will allow us to create even better games, reach larger audiences, and achieve significant growth as a leader in the next era of gaming.
The agreement was reached to create a consolidated leading position in the mobile gaming industry. According to reports, the deal will offer a formidable and broad portfolio of industry-leading games spanning key platforms and genres in interactive entertainment, built by some of the industry’s most creative and forward-thinking talent.
Adding Zynga’s gaming titles will, of course, improve the company’s Recurring User Spending base, because… Sales from Zynga-published games will be added to the total. Strauss Zelnick will remain Chairman and CEO of the combined firm, while the Take-Two executive team will continue to run it.
Meanwhile, the Zynga management team, led by Frank Gibeau and Bernard Kim, Zynga’s President of Publishing, will lead Take-mobile Two’s initiatives and supervise the integration and day-to-day operations of the merged Zynga and T2 Mobile Games business.
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