Take-Two to acquire Zynga for $12.7 billion

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of 2K games, especially Grand Theft Auto, one of today’s most popular game series, and the Red Dead Redemption series, announced that it will make an important acquisition in order to step into the mobile gaming world.

Take-Two said that it will acquire all the outstanding shares of Zynga for a total value of $9.861 per share – $3.50 in cash and $6.361 in shares of Take-Two common stock, implying an enterprise value of $12.7 billion.

Take-Two said the transaction will result in $6.1 billion in 12-month pro-forma net bookings  for the period ended September 30, 2021. 

With the acquisition of Zynga, Take-Two Interactive has made a total of 12 acquisitions to date, including Barking Dog Studios, TDK Mediactive, Mobius Entertainment, Firaxis Games, Irrational Games, Social Point, Kerbal Space Program, Playdots, Nordeus and Dynamixyz.

Take-Two Interactive, one of the most established companies in the gaming world, was founded in 1993 by Ryan Brant in New York. The company had acquired mobile game developer Nordeus for up to $378 million in June 2021, and mobile game developer Playdots for $192 million in August 2020.

“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 experienced 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.” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two.

Founded in 2007 by Andrew Trader, Eric Schiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Mark Pincus and Steve Schoettler, Zynga had recently acquired Echtra Games, Peak, Rollic, and mobile ad and monetization platform Chartboost. The social game developer reported $134 million in advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2021, up 99% year-over-year.  

“Combining Zynga’s expertise in mobile and next-generation platforms with Take-Two’s best-in-class capabilities and intellectual property will enable us to further advance our mission to connect the world through games while achieving significant growth and synergies together,” said Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga. “I am proud of our team’s hard work to deliver a strong finish to 2021, with one of the best performances in Zynga’s history. We are incredibly excited to have found a partner in Take-Two that shares our commitment to investing in our players, amplifying our creative culture, and generating more value for stockholders. With this transformative transaction, we begin a new journey which will allow us to create even better games, reach larger audiences and achieve significant growth as a leader in the next era of gaming.”