Supercell is best known for the mobile game Clash of Clans though it has many other titles under its umbrella. Clash of Clans has really put Supercell on the map, so much so that it appeared on Chinese giant Tencent Holdings’ radar. It has been confirmed today that Tencent has purchased Supercell, it has acquired an 84.3 percent stake in the Clash of Clans developer for $8.6 billion.
This isn’t Tencent’s first investment in gaming. It already owns Riot which is the developer of the very popular League of Legends game.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the purchase process is occurring in stages. Tencent has enough cash in hand to pay for the initial phase while it’s also going to raise additional debt secured by Supercell’s assets to cover some of the acquisition costs.
Supercell was valued at around $5.25 billion last year. Softbank first acquired a 51 percent stake in the company back in 2013 for $1.53 billion and then raised to 73 percent last year without disclosing the price of the transaction.
Confirming the acquisition, Tencent has said that Supercell’s current management will have operational independence and that they can continue developing published games as they like. This acquisition deal is likely to be closed properly by the third quarter of this year.
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