Former PlayStation boss Jack Tretton looking to snap up game company worth $1-2 billion via his SPAC

Jack Tretton, one of the creators of the first PlayStation, has announced his intent to acquire a game publisher or developer. He is now planning a deal through his own special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Jack Tretton, Imgae credit: Kevin Krejci

The potential deal is aimed at a company that goes for $1-2 billion, Tretton told Axios. While his partners “have their own favorite areas,” he is primarily interested in the games industry.

Tretton wants to buy a company through PowerUp Acquisition, a SPAC where he serves as chief executive officer. The firm raised $250 million in February, planning to make its first acquisition during the next 18 months. However, PowerUp decided to shorten this timeframe by three months because it “felt very confident” that there were a number of targets it could land.

“We’re not looking for a company that’s in disarray, that is on the way out of business and is a reclamation project,” Tretton said of acquisition targets.

Taking into account his decades of experience in the games industry, Tretton learned that employees at the acquired company shouldn’t be “demotivated going into the merger because the senior management has cashed out and they all went and bought Ferraris.”

Jack Tretton joined Sony in 1995 and became a part of the team behind the first PlayStation. He also served as Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO between 2006 and 2014, overseeing the company’s acquisitions of studios like Naughty Dog.

Although PowerUp hasn’t chosen the acquisition target yet, Tretton said that the firm might help more companies in the future.