Video-Game Company, Take-Two Interactive Acquires Game Developer, Zynga For $12.7 Billion

The gaming market has in the last two years had a spike especially with the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions having to force a lot of non-gamers to latch on the technology while the stay-at home occasioned by the lockdown lasted.

The gaming world is set to in the coming days witness a tsunami as video-game company, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. has announced the acquisition of game developer, Zynga Inc in a $12.7 billion deal.

The new deal expected to increase the valuation of the American social game developer, will also have the shareholders of the gaming firm get a compensation of almost $9.68 per share owned by the California-based company.

A Wall Street Journal report said that this will include about $3.50 in cash and $6.36 of Take-Two stock.

The stock valuation of Zynga rose by almost 50 percent on Monday premarket trading, while it closed the trading at $6.00 per share on Friday.

Barring regulatory and shareholders’ approval, the acquisition will be finalized in the first quarter (Q1) in the fiscal year 2023.

While announcing the acquisition, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, in a statement said:

 “We are thrilled to announce our transformative transaction with Zynga, which significantly diversifies our business and establishes our leadership position in mobile, the fastest-growing segment of the interactive entertainment industry”.

“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. Zynga also has a highly talented and deeply experimented team, and we look forward to welcoming them into the Take-Two family in the coming months. As we combine our complementary businesses and operate at a much larger scale, we believe that we will deliver significant value to both sets of stockholders, including $100 million of annual cost synergies within the first two years post-closing and at least $500 million of annual Net Bookings opportunities over time,” he added.

Zynga, a renowned video-game company founded in April 2007 with headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States, is famed for creating famous games like “FarmVille” and Words with Friends,” signalling a breakthrough in intertwining social-media ethos with the entertainment industry.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. on the other hand is a New York City based video game holding company founded in 1993. The gaming company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal game development studios and prides itself as the caretaker of some of the most famed games in the industry, including “Grant Theft Auto,” “Civilization,” and “Red Dead Redemption.”

The ‘acquisitional’ transaction is expected to be finalized between April and June of this year.