Take-Two announced the purchase of Nordeus for $378 million. The company enters the mobile football market
Take-Two has successfully gained a foothold in the genre of sports games on PC and consoles. Now the company has decided to extend its influence to mobile by announcing the purchase of the Serbian studio Nordeus — the authors of the mobile simulator of the football coach Top Eleven. The transaction amount may reach $378 million.The official announcement says that Take-Two will immediately pay Nordeus $225 million.
This amount includes cash at the publisher’s disposal and new shares worth $90 million. The Serbian studio may also receive another $153 million, but how exactly is not specified.
According to Take-Two Executive vice president Michael Worosz, the company has been eyeing Nordeus since 2014.The
main game in the portfolio of the Serbian studio is Top Eleven, which is available on iOS, Android and Facebook. The number of registered players exceeds 240 million, and the main audience is concentrated in Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.For Take-Two, one of the reasons for the deal was the stable growth of the project. According to Vorosh, Top Eleven is the fastest growing football game on mobile devices in the world, with the exception of Japan and China. After the transaction is completed, the publisher intends to help Nordeus gain a foothold in the markets of North America and China.
The purchase of the Serbian studio was Take-Two’s fifth M&A deal in the last 12 months. Now the mobile division of the company also includes Socialpoint, the authors of Dragon City and Monster Legends, and Playdots, known for the game Two Dots. The publisher acquired the latter in August last year for $192 million. Take-Two also invests in other mobile companies — for example, Scopely.
