The mass appeal of mobile gaming apps is finally bringing the right type of attention from the financial markets.
Activision Blizzard, the makers of popular games World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero have purchased King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion.
King Digital is the maker of Candy Crush Saga, and the company boasts 500 million active users per month. Activision wants to diversify from the console game market, into an industry with constantly increasing usage, as mobile gaming is fast replacing traditional gaming.
King Digital is being purchased at $18 per share, considerably below its IPO price of $22.50, which valued the company then at $7.1 billion. The company has remained profitable however and the merger will bring out the best of both. Mobile Gaming has scarcely seen deals in the billion dollar range, though there have been multiple deals this year as game makers and publishers are trying to cash-in on the highly lucrative market.
The appeal of mobile gaming is bound to increase as smart-phones further infiltrate areas with growing middle-income bands in Asia, South America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
