Remember Zynga? Your aunt does, or at least, she probably still plays their games. Zynga made Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cityville, and many more major social network games, with tens of millions of active players at their peak. It also developed a reputation for ripping off concepts from other developers and popularizing them itself. It ultimately went on to become a multi-billion dollar company, and that's been firmly cemented by Take-Two's purchase, which just valued the company at $12.7 billion.
The acquisition still needs regulatory approval, but if it goes through, it'll be a record setting purchase.
"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," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a statement. "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."
This purchase price is bigger than Microsoft's purchase of Zenimax, Facebook's buyout of Oculus, Activision's King buyout, and any others you can think of. It's a staggering amount of money, and double the price of the company's asset value.
The move would make Take-Two one of the largest mobile game publishers in the world, and will allegedly allow it to focus efforts on emerging gaming markets, like the Middle-East.