Video games: publisher Take-Two to buy Zynga's mobile games for $ 12.7 billion

The gangsters of the

saga and the gentle farmers of

will soon be part of the same group.

The American publisher Take-Two, specialist in console and PC games, announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement to buy the creator of mobile games Zynga.

Estimated at $ 12.7 billion, this is one of the largest acquisitions ever made in the world of video games.

Last year, Microsoft got its hands on publisher Bethesda for $ 7.5 billion.

Shortly after the deal was formalized, Zynga shares soared 50% in after-market trading.

Read alsoMicrosoft gets its hands on video game publisher Bethesda for $ 7.5 billion

"

," said Strauss Zelnick, CEO by Take-Two.

The Newzoo firm estimates the mobile gaming market at 93 billion annual revenue, which is as much as that of console and PC games combined.

Read alsoBetween acquisitions and fundraising, the video game sector is in turmoil

Zynga renewal

Zynga had its heyday in the late 2000s, when Internet users enthusiastically discovered video games on Facebook.

Performed by tens of millions of people across the planet, the

farm life simulation was the founding success of this American company.

Zynga then went through a long period of turbulence, failing to anticipate the migration of so-called “

” players from Facebook to smartphones.

To read also "FarmVille", the curse of the giant Zynga

The studio has since caught up. It publishes mobile games still intended for the general public, with

... It also operates the Game of Thrones and Harry Potter licenses. In 2020, Zynga achieved a turnover of 2 billion dollars, of which 1.6 billion comes from optional purchases made by Internet users to progress faster in their games. But the group recorded a net loss of $ 430 million.

At the end of 2020, Zynga extended its catalog by acquiring 80% of the Turkish studio Rollic for 170 million dollars.

Rollic is a specialist in so-called "

" games, extremely simple mobile applications that only ask the user to press their screen to dodge obstacles, untie ropes, climb a tower, hit a ball ... These games, which seek to occupy the downtime of the day, are above all media for advertising.

The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs GTA V

By purchasing Zynga, Take-Two completes its portfolio which is mainly geared towards console and PC games. The American is known for his sports games

and

, and especially for editing productions of the renowned Rockstar studio.

The latter is at the origin of the

(GTA) saga, a real goose that lays golden eggs. The latest game,

, has sold 155 million copies worldwide since its release in 2013. A number that will continue to grow: the game will be released remastered on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series in March.

online mode

, which is a real cash machine. This is how in 2020,

brought in almost $ 1 billion to Take-Two, or a third of its annual revenue.

The American Take-Two, valued at $ 20 billion on Wall Street, is structured like its direct rivals Activision and EA.

The first had acquired the King mobile studio (

) in 2015 for $ 5.9 billion.

The second increased in 2021 the buyouts of mobile studios like Playdemic ($ 1.4 billion) and Glu ($ 2.1 billion), in order to catch up on this market.