Media: the head of Hobby World founded a video game company and is preparing it for an IPO. To do this, he buys shares in Russian studios
Vedomosti newspaper discovered in the SPARK-Interfax database that in October 2023 Mikhail Akulov, one of the founders and CEO of the Hobby World board game publishing house, registered Novodel LLC. According to the description, the company specializes in the development and publication of video games.
Sources of Vedomosti claim that Akulov is going to eventually bring Novodel to the stock exchange. It is expected that he will hold an IPO in early 2025.
Now, Vedomosti writes, Akulov is negotiating M&A deals with "video game studios with Russian founders." According to the newspaper, he is primarily interested in medium-sized studios, which have "recognizable game brands" in their portfolio.
According to Vedomosti, Akulov has already concluded such deals. For example, over the past two years, he managed to become the owner of SunStrike Studios and buy a majority stake in the Russian structure of Owlcat Games.
Akulov refused to comment on the sources' information to Vedomosti. But he admitted that he is interested in video games.
"It is always interesting for me to take part in new projects and help develop the market for both video and board games," Akulov said.
