Moon Active announced today the acquisition of the mobile game company Melsoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Melsoft has become a pretty big company thanks to the likes of Family Island and MyCafe.
The deal is part of an ongoing acquisition frenzy in games, which saw $20.5 billion in deals in the first nine months of 2020, according to game investment site InvestGame. If I had to guess, this deal would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Israel-based Moon Active is acquiring Melsoft, which has its headquarters in Cyprus and has more than 240 employees, most of them in Belarus. Melsoft’s annual revenue run rate (the revenue generated in the past 12 months) is more than $160 million.
Melsoft has built its business in games about resource management. Meanwhile, Moon Active’s flagship Coin Master game is ranked as the fourth highest-earning mobile game in the world for 2020, after surpassing $1 billion dollars in revenue to date. It’s the top-grossing apps in many countries.
Moon Active was founded in 2011. It has more than 650 employees, with the majority based in Israel and a large branch in Kyiv, Ukraine, as well as offices in London. In 2020, Moon Active doubled its team and hired over 350 new employees.
In an email to GamesBeat, Moon Active CEO Samuel Albin said, “Moon Active will continue to develop games with the highest production value for our users and at the same time add the best and most talented teams to the Moon Active family through strategic acquisitions. We were searching for a company that has the right products and at the same time shares our culture and values that will allow us to grow together in synergy. We were fortunate enough to have finally found Melsoft and are proud that they chose us to be their partners.”
Aream & Co. acted as a financial adviser to Melsoft.