Game acquisitions are not slowing down.
Gaming-technology platform company Imperus has announced today its plan to acquire the Tel Aviv-based social-game developer Diwip. The deal would have Imperus spending nearly $100 million to purchase all of the shares in Diwip. Once completed, this acquisition will give Imperus control over Best Casino, which is one of the higher-grossing games on mobile and Facebook. Mobile gaming generated $16 billion in consumer spending worldwide last year, and social casino games are one of the biggest reasons for that.
Imperus likely found Diwip particularly appealing due to its recent growth. The developer went from revenues of $7.8 million in 2011 to $28.3 million in 2013. Diwip also claims to have 24 million registered customers across its numerous games.
In addition to its original games, Diwip also supplies proprietary game-making software to other companies. Licensing technology like that is a lucrative business, and it was another draw for Imperus.
This deal continues 2014 as the year of the games-industry mega-acquisitions. Through the third quarter, deals like Facebook buying Oculus for $2 billion and Amazon acquiring Twitch for $970 million have pushed total industry acquisitions to over $12 billion.
Imperus’s $100 million has the industry well on its way to $13 billion in acquisitions before the year is out.