Media, gaming, and tech company Azerion has acquired the mobile game division of Spil Games. The two companies have also set up a strategic partnership.
The deal will make Azerion into the biggest casual gaming company in the Netherlands and help it become a major player in the global games market. It’s another sign of consolidation in the mobile games market.
Azerion is also taking a strategic minority stake in Spil Games’ web portal business.
The companies will share technology and know-how to maximize user engagement and advertiser impact in the consolidating games market. Azerion will take over Spil Games’ mobile business, while Spil Games will concentrate on creating new opportunities out of its world-leading web game portals.
Azerion’s co-CEOs and founding partners Atilla Aytekin and Umut Akpinar said in a statement, “This acquisition and partnership fits perfectly into our strategy. We want to build a leading trusted ecosystem with content, technology, and reach for advertisers, publishers, and consumers. Working together with Spil Games gives us a step up in terms of our global profile.”
The mobile games developed by Spil Games, including hits such as Operate Now: Hospital (45 million installs) and the Troll Face Quest franchise (144 million installs), dovetail well with Azerion’s content business which consists of acclaimed products like HabboHotel, Governor of Poker, Stratego, and spele.nl.
Together these games attract well over 125 million gameplays every month. Other recent acquisitions which have been successfully integrated include: Improve Digital, Widespace, Sellbranch, Sulake, Smeet, Semilo, Adpulse and Adux.
Spil Games’ founders, Peter Driessen and Bennie Eeftink, remain the company’s majority shareholders (with a 95% stake).
“I’m excited to be in partnership with Azerion,” says Timm Geyer, Spil Games CEO, in a statement. “Gaming is a huge global market with massive potential rewards. But you need substantial resources to take it on. Together with Azerion, we will be a force to be reckoned with.”
Brian Stengel, managing partner of Trebuchet Partners (based in New York City) was the exclusive advisor to Spil Games on the cooperative deal.