Embracer Group acquired three studios at once, including Easybrain and Borderlands authors
The Swedish Embracer Group holding continues to grow actively. Today, the company announced three major acquisitions at once. Below is the main thing about transactions.
Borderlands 3Gearbox
- the purchase of the American Gearbox studio has become the most expensive of the deals. The maximum amount of the agreement may be about $1.38 billion;
- now the Swedish holding is ready to transfer $363 million to developers ($188 million in cash and $175 million in shares). Gearbox will receive the remaining $1.02 billion only if it reaches the required indicators over the next six years;
- Upon completion of the transaction, Gearbox will become a separate division of Embracer. The head of the studio Randy Pitchford (Randy Pitchford) will retain his position;
- Gearbox is primarily known for the Borderlands loot shooter franchise. Other high—profile projects of developers include the Brothers in Arms series, the Duke Nukem Forever title and the Half-Life: Opposing Force supplement.
Easybrain
- Embracer also bought 100% of Easybrain Studio for $640 million worth of shares.;
- it is assumed that the additional remuneration will amount to $ 125 million. However, its exact size depends on the results of the developers over the next six years;
- Easybrain will continue to operate as an independent studio and will also become an independent division of Embracer. It will continue to be headed by the current leadership: Pyotr Skoromny, Matvey Tymoshenko and Oleg Grushevich;
- Developers from Easybrain specialize in mobile puzzles. To date, the studio has released 15 titles that have collected 750 million downloads and a DAU of 12 million users. Among the most famous games of the company — Sudoku.com , Nonogram.com , Blockudoku and Pixel Art.
Aspyr Media
- The acquisition of Aspyr Media cost the Swedish holding company $100 million. Of these, Embracer paid $60 million in cash, and $40 million in shares;
- Embracer promised to transfer another $350 million to the American studio if it achieves all its goals in seven years;
- Unlike the previous two companies, Aspyr Media will become part of Saber Interactive as a result of the deal. Studio co-founders Michael Rogers and Ted Staloch will also remain in leadership positions;
- Aspyr Media has released numerous remasters. She has worked on ports of games such as Harry Potter, The Sims, Madden NFL Football, Star Wars and Tony Hawk.
