On February 8, Jiuzun Digital Interactive Entertainment (stock code: 01961.HK) issued a joint announcement saying that the company has received a takeover offer worth 300 million Hong Kong dollars.
This is also another major merger and acquisition in the global game industry after Zynga and Activision Blizzard in less than a month since the start of 2022.
Jiuzun Digital Interactive Entertainment Group Holdings Co., Ltd. is a mobile Internet pan-entertainment content provider listed on the main board of Hong Kong. Its main business includes the development and operation of mobile games, and the distribution and marketing of digital media such as electronic magazines, comics, and music.
In 2020, the company's revenue was 170 million yuan.
According to the announcement, the five shareholders of Jiuzun Digital Interactive Entertainment transferred about 390 million shares to the buyer headed by Infinities Global Technology Limited Partnership at a valuation of HK$300 million, equivalent to 71.9% of the total issued share capital, valued at about 215.9 million Hong Kong dollars.
It is reported that the actual controller of the buyer Infinities Global Technology Limited Partnership is Duoniu Technology Group, a well-known new media technology group in China, which owns many well-known assets, including campus social network Renren, online game platform NGA, video game consoles and smart Product Portal Video Game Bus, etc.
The group's shareholder lineup is luxurious, including many global listed companies such as Perfect World (002624.SZ), Renren Group (RENN.US), Shunwang Technology (300113.SZ), Enlight Media (300251.SZ), Haier Group (600690.SH, 06690.HK), as well as domestic first-line investment institutions such as Shenzhen Venture Capital.
Public information shows that in recent years, Duoniu Group has made extensive layouts in the fields of games, technology, animation, and campus social networking, and has established a vibrant young user community, forming a large-scale content and user ecosystem.
At the same time, Duoniu Technology Group also provides mobile Internet developers with tools and solutions to facilitate their growth.
Through self-construction and cooperation, Duoniu Technology Group has established an extensive, efficient and prosperous mobile Internet ecosystem.
The acquisition of Jiuzun Digital Interactive Entertainment shows its intention to continue to strengthen the layout of the game sector, enrich the content map, and enhance the overall competitiveness.
According to a report by investment bank DrakeStarPartners, the number of global game industry deals will reach 1,150 in 2021, and the deal size will reach a record $85 billion, about three times the number in 2020 the year before.
At the beginning of 2022, the global game industry has continued to grow unabated. Since January, news that has shocked the industry has continued to come, and the scale of mergers and acquisitions that occurred in less than half a month has quickly approached the record for the whole year of 2021.
On January 11, Take-Two, a well-known American game company holding well-known IPs such as "GTA", "Red Dead Redemption", "Borderlands", "Civilization", "NBA2K", "Bioshock" (stock code: TTWO.US) announced the acquisition of Zynga (stock code: ZNGA.US), the originator of social games, for $12.7 billion.
A week later, on January 18, the technology giant Microsoft (stock code: MSFT.US) announced that it would acquire Activision Blizzard (stock code: ATVI.US) for $68.7 billion in cash, and will merge "World of Warcraft", "Call of Duty", "Diablo", "StarCraft", a group of well-known IP, Luo Zhi, became the world's third largest game company in one fell swoop once again shocked the industry.