Activision Blizzard, Inc. today announced an agreement to acquire King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion in equity value ($5.0 billion in enterprise value). The addition of King’s highly-complementary business further positions Activision Blizzard for growth across platforms, audiences, genres, and business models. King Digital Entertainment is the creator of ‘Candy Crush’.
The highly addictive online video game is one of the most popular mobile games in the world right now and it comes as a non-surprise that a juggernaut in the game world would decide to obtain it. The acquisition comes as one of the first for the game company, giving them a taste of the mobile game market. The news also comes in light of impressive financial results by the company, fueling potential stock price rise in the forthcoming weeks as well.
or the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $990 million, as compared with $753 million for the third quarter of 2014. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s net revenues were $1.04 billion, as compared with $1.17 billion for the third quarter of 2014. For the third quarter, GAAP net revenues from digital channels were a record $629 million. On a non-GAAP basis, net revenues from digital channels were a record $697 million and represented a Q3 record 67% of the company’s total revenues, growing 38% year-over-year.
For the quarter ended September 30, 2015, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.17, as compared with a loss of $0.03 for the third quarter of 2014. On a non-GAAP basis, the company’s earnings per diluted share were $0.21, as compared with $0.23 for the third quarter of 2014.
At constant FXA, non-GAAP revenues were down 4% and EPS was up 13% for the quarter versus prior year. Year-to-date, non-GAAP revenues and EPS were up 5% and 35%, respectively, year-over-year, given strong engagement and recurring digital trends on our year-round monetizing franchises.
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, “We continue to benefit from our focus on creating the world’s best interactive entertainment. Our incredibly talented employees around the world once again delivered great content and strong financial results. Mobile gaming is the largest and fastest-growing opportunity for interactive entertainment and we will have one of the world’s most successful mobile game companies and its talented teams providing great content to new customers, in new geographies throughout the world. King has a truly fantastic management team and over 1,600 incredibly talented employees and we are excited to welcome them into the Activision Blizzard family.”
