Today SoftBank paid $1.5 billion for a 51% stake in Finnish mobile games maker Supercell, the maker of 'Clash of Clans' and 'Hay Day'. Not bad for a company with 100 people and just two active games!
Softbank's bid to claim a leading role in the fast-growing mobile games market makes 3-year-old Supercell more valuable than Zynga Inc, the $2.8 billion company behind former hits such as "FarmVille". Twenty percent of Softbank's investment will come from its mobile games maker subsidiary, GungHo Online Entertainment Inc, which has a market capitalization of about $8.3 billion.
Recall that part of Clash of Clans' super success was working with Gungho to get massive Japanese distribution. It's also not a secret that Rovio has been working with Gungho to crack the asian market. Gungho have their own billion-dollar gaming app: Puzzles and Dragons.
Gungho Online Entertainment is best known as the publisher of Puzzle and Dragons, a combination of a simple gem-matching game and a Japanese-style RPG which through skilful monetization reached revenues of around $2.5 million per day in April 2013 and was valued at $4.5 billion. Although hugely successful in its native Japan, uptake in the critical and lucrative US market has been slower, making Supercell's knowledge of and success in the western mobile gaming market a complementary proposition.
Supercell, with daily revenue of about $2.4 million mainly through the sale of in-game, virtual items, at about 3.5 times projected annual sales. That is cheaper than several major recent deals such as Electronic Arts' acquisition of PopCap in 2011, which went through at about 10 to 11 times sales the year before.
Supercell's two hit games "Clash of Clans" and "Hay Day" reached No. 1 in Apple's App Store in 137 and 96 countries respectively, according to app analytics AppAnnie.
Venture Capital firms like Index Ventures, Accel Partners and Atomico have invested in Supercell over the last two years.
Supercell said earlier this year that it had raised $130 million through a secondary funding round, led by Index Ventures in February at a valuation of $770 million.
Paananen, who will remain as CEO of Supercell, said the company will work autonomously.
The most important point in the deal for us is that it guarantees our independence, Paananen said.