Tencent to Acquire Sumo in $1.27 Billion Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 July 2021 / 1,607 Views
Chinese gaming company, Tencent Holding, has announced its intention to acquire British studio Sumo Group in a $1.27 billion deal.
Tencent already owns an 8.75 percent stake in Sumo, which made them the second biggest shareholder. Sumo has 14 studios across five countries and would be best known for developing 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 ecosystem, proven industry expertise, and its strategic resources," said Sumo Group non-executive chairman Ian Livingstone in a statement.
Sumo Group includes the following studios:
- Atomhawk
- Atomhawk Canada
- Atomhawk United Kingdom
- Pipeworks Studios
- Timbre Games
- Sumo Digital
- The Chinese Room
- Lab 42
- PixelAnt Games
- Red Kite Games
- Sumo Leamington
- Sumo Newcastle
- Sumo Nottingham
- Sumo Pune
- Sumo Sheffield
- Sumo Warrington
- Secret Mode
Senior analyst at Niko Partner Daniel Ahmad said Tencent has acquired a number of European developers recently - Funcom, Yager and 10 Chambers.
"The $1.3bn deal price is a 43% premium on what Sumo is currently worth," said Ahmad. "Tencent has acquired a number of European companies recently such as Funcom, Yager and 10 Chambers. Sumo Digital's breadth of experience in game dev, including AAA and online games, makes it a good fit.
Ahmad added, "Tencent will continue its usual hands off approach when it comes to management."
The $1.3bn deal price is a 43% premium on what Sumo is currently worth.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 19, 2021
Tencent has acquired a number of European companies recently such as Funcom, Yager and 10 Chambers.
Sumo Digital's breadth of experience in game dev, including AAA and online games, makes it a good fit.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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The Acquisitions continue. Tencent really do want a big piece of the gaming industry.
If not all of it. Give it time, they are stupidly rich and massive, they'll get what they want eventually, either that or Embracer will.
Time will tell what and how much they will own, but as it stands, they are as big as Disney, along with Embracer.
Also the world's "game" market isn't ran by NATO or countries btw, so it's not like NATO will step in and go "stop trying to buy up the entire video games entertainment market", because at the end of the day, video games are a luxury, not a necessity. Just look at how little consumer protections we have, the DRM and crap, you think the world would defend a market from two massive holding's companies, when it won't take a stand against what the big 3 have acquired over the past 3 decades?.
Yes Kapi, you do, because back in the day, When Disney was growing, they actually did buyout reviews, they tried to buyout studios, back when Hollywood wasn't so big, and this both irked and frightened the film industry over there, that they had to put binding rules upon that company that lasted nearly half a century. Just let that sink in for a moment.
This is clearly a time of consolidation in the industry. Money is cheap and easy to get, so it makes sense. But, as we've seen in gaming, new studios pop up all the time. Consolidation doesn't bother me.
What a load of shie* tencent is going to ruin sumo family!
Not content with releasing a pandemic upon the world now they plan on buying it instead.
I actually like Sumo Digital, hope they continue to work to their strenghts.
True!
Not if they want a nice return on their investment. Tencent is based in China, but they're a global company. Buying western companies wouldn't make sense if they just want to make games that the Chinese government will approve of.
it's fine Media Molecule and Sony still own Sackboy , MM being a small studio with a development philosophy based around staying small meant they were never going to scale up to make multiple games, so once Dreams began development, Sony outsourced LBP3 development to Sumo Digital who then became the obvious candidates to develop Sackboy adventures .
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