Bukhman Brothers on Future of Playrix: “For $3 billion we won’t sell!”

Wall Street banks are showing interest in Playrix, a gaming company established in Russia.

Its founders, brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, have already met with representatives of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp.

Igor and Dmity Bukhman. Image Credit: Playrix

The information comes from Bloomberg, which posted a detailed article about Playrix today. Here’s the takeaway from the post.

• According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, each of the Bukhman brothers is worth about $ 1.4 billion.
• Playrix’s biggest income comes from the U.S. China and Japan are the company’s second and third biggest markets.
• The company now employs 1,100 people. Its offices are located in four countries. The headquarters are in Ireland, and the developers work in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The brothers gave the interview in Tel Aviv where they spend some of their time.
• The company’s main revenue comes from in-app purchases. Ads account for less than 3%.
• Recently, Playrix has acquired several gaming companies, but so far hasn’t named which ones.
• In February, a rumor surfaced that Playrix could be sold for $ 3 billion. The Bukhmans say that they will not sell the company for this sum. However, they note that last year they did discuss the future of the company with the representatives of banks on Wall Street. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the company’s growth strategy.
• At the same time, the Bukhmans note that there is no magic number that would make them sell Playrix. Making games for them is more important than making money.

“Some may think that when you have a lot of money, everything becomes different and more interesting, you start doing different things,” Dmitry said. “But no. We just keep working.”

In the brothers’ words, their goal right now is to grow Playrix into a top-tier studio that can challenge Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts in the West, as well as NetEase and Tencent in China.

“We want to grow as big as they are, using developer talent from our region—the former USSR and Eastern Europe,” Igor said.