Chinese gaming giant Tencent has announced its intention to fully acquire British studio Sumo in a £900m deal.
Tencent, which has already invested in more than 800 firms, is one of the biggest companies in the world by market value. They have stakes in various well-known publishers and developers, including a 40% stake in Epic Games, a 5% stake in Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, and many more. Just this year, Tencent used its subsidiary Proxima Beta Europe BV to acquire a 22% stake in French developer Dontnod Entertainment. Tencent also wholly owns the developer Riot Games, the studio which brought us League of Legends and the ever-growing Valorant.
It seems Tencent is continuing this trend as they are now looking to purchase the British developer Sumo in a deal worth more than £900m. Tencent already owns 8.75% of Sumo and is its second-biggest shareholder. Sumo has 14 studios spread across five countries and is known for titles such as Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Crackdown 3 and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
“The Board of Sumo firmly believes the business will benefit from Tencent’s broad videogaming eco-system, proven industry expertise and its strategic resources,” said non-executive chairman Ian Livingstone in a prepared statement.
Daniel Ahmad, the senior analyst at Niko Partners, said that Tencent would likely continue its hands-off approach to Sumo’s management.
“Tencent is acquiring Sumo Digital for its breadth of experience developing and operating AAA games and live service games, the majority of which are developed for clients such as Sony, Microsoft, Sega and others,” he said.
“Tencent will continue to support Sumo on these work for hire projects, but the company could also be an invaluable partner for Tencent as it looks to push into the AAA game space itself with its own projects.”
“The deal would also help Sumo utilize Tencent’s expertise regarding games development and publishing within China.”
This news comes shortly after rumours that Tencent was looking to buy Crysis developer Crytek. It seems Tencent is making bigger moves than ever.
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