In one of the most expensive purchases to date, King Digital Entertainment has a new owner in Activision Blizzard, which bought the shares of King at $18 per share in cash. All in all, that puts the final purchase price at $5.9 billion (no, that's not a typo — billion).
The new acquisition puts Activision in a prime spot to continue to expand on the mobile platform. The company has some experience with games on mobile, most notably the popular Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft card game, but there's a potential scenario where some of the company's well-known franchises on consoles and PC could have some presence on your smartphone, be it as a short spin-off game, or a companion app to increase the main experience.
On the other side, the purchase elevates King's reputation, as well. The company is well-known for Candy Crush Saga and the many variations of Saga games spawned from the simple mobile game. Under Activision, the company's portfolio of titles should be a bit more diverse, not to mention that the number of staff will increase as well in the near future.
Despite the purchase, Activision still considers King as an "independent operating unit," so the company will still be able create its own projects with Activision providing extra resources. King will still keep its same leadership triumvirate of CEO Riccardo Zacconi, CCO Sebastian Knutsson, and COO Stephane Kurgan.
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Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.
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