US private equity firm buys 350 million dollar stake in European games giants

Beijing Time April 26 Noon news, the United States two private equity companies TA Associates and Summit have announced that will be 350 million U.S. dollars from the European Media Communications Investment company GMT Communications (hereinafter referred to as "GMT　　And NBC Universal's Peacock fund to buy a majority stake in Bigpoint, Europe's second-largest online game developer. It is also the world's second-largest online gaming acquisition, after Walt Disney last year bought 563.2 million dollars for social game developer Playdom. The global online gaming market will reach nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2014, up by more than 2010, according to ISUPPLI, a market research institute.　　Games such as FarmVille, a social-game-development giant, currently dominate the online gaming market. Bigpoint is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, the game provided to the players are all free, mainly through the sale of virtual goods in the game to obtain revenue, such as every less than 1 U.S. dollars of advanced weapons, has issued the "Naval Battle Kennedy" (Seafight), "Dark track" (DarkOrbit)　　And so on a variety of well-known web games. Jonathan Meeks, executive director of TA Associates, said: "Internet game development companies will eliminate all sorts of obstacles, such as the need to sell games through retailers, and the need to work with Microsoft or Sony, which allows you to directly connect with consumers." Bigpoint Such companies will become the new market leader, in the long run, will be the art of electricity, dynamic blizzard and other large computer game developers to launch a strong challenge. GMT and NBC bought a 70% per cent stake in Bigpoint in 2008, when the latter was valued at € 70 million (about $102 million). "Investment in Bigpoint is definitely one of our best investments," said Natalie Tydeman, GMT partner Natalie Tedman. We are not actively looking for buyers, but many buyers are interested in bigpoint. Now, we have not only recovered the original investment, but also made a lot of money. According to isuppli analyst Wahid Devac Vahid Dejwakh, Bigpoint is currently the world's fifth-largest 2D game developer and Europe's second-largest online game developer, with 2010 revenue estimated at $171 million trillion. Haiko Huberts Heiko Hubertz, founder and incumbent of Bigpoint, said Bigpoint's valuation had topped $600 million trillion in the amount of the deal, becoming the second-largest online game acquisition after Walt Disney's acquisition of Playdom. Huberts will still hold a 30% per cent stake in Bigpoint. Sail)