Sunday 7 October 2012

Global Games Investment Review Q3 2012 Transaction Update - Games M&A beats all records

Digital investment bank Digi-Capital has just published the Q3 Transaction Update of its Global Games Investment Review 2012.

Commenting on the Update, Digi-Capital Managing Director Tim Merel said “Games M&A for 2012 is at a run rate 40% higher than 2011 (the previous record year), having delivered 105% of the transaction value of all of 2011 by the end of Q3 2012. As we anticipated, 6 of the 10 largest games M&A transactions to Q3 2012 were made by Chinese, Japanese and South Korean acquirers. The broader games investment and M&A trends from H1 2012 have continued through Q3 2012, with new emerging trends which could be borne out during Q4. Our prediction that the Zynga IPO might have been the high water mark for Social Games 1.0 investment has been validated, with the VC market moving sharply away from that sector. For public companies, the Update also details how companies in some sectors and geographies are trading at 12 month highs, while others are not enjoying the same level of appreciation by investors. The combination of accelerating M&A, changing investment and valuations has seen an acceleration in our Strategic Review and transactional work for games companies, including strategic pivots across sectors/geographies, sell and buy side M&A, and fundraising/investment to accelerate growth.