‘White space’ helps us understand the strategic direction of gaming mergers and acquisitions

Nate Hennings is a vice president of Internet investment banking for Union Square Advisors.

The past few years have been a heyday for video game mergers, with $100 million-plus valuations paid for developers with one or two hits, a couple of million users, or simply a platform. Yet we have seen a recent lull as acquiror currency (meaning public stock) has waned and the key players are busy integrating their recent acquisitions. Despite this lull, it behooves us to consider where startups and established players alike might be headed in the near future. The most relevant question for those in my line of work is whether or not the recent successes (which have been primarily on mobile) will be the big merger-and-acquisitions exits in the near-term, or if they will continue to grow into public companies and be the next DeNA or GREE?