Ukrainian studio Murka is being bought by one of the largest investment companies in the USA
The developer of Scatter Slots and Slots Era will soon have a new owner. The Blackstone Group is preparing to buy Murka Studio.
Deal
This is reported by our colleagues with reference to the Cyprus Commission for the Protection of Competition with Ain.ua . They also note that the deal has been confirmed.
There are few details about the purchase yet. It is known that the assets of Murka Ltd and Murka Entertainment Ltd will be acquired through Tribe Cyprus Bidco Ltd, which was just created for the transaction.
It is unknown on what terms the transfer of the company will take place, how much it will cost the Americans and which of the current investors is leaving the company (recall that the main investor of the studio is the Noosphere fund launched by Maxim Polyakov).
Who is being bought
Murka today is one of the most commercially successful game studios in the former Soviet Union. Its mobile revenue from micropayments for 2018 amounted, according to DataMagic, to about $70 million.
The studio has made a name for itself on slots. The main blockbuster of the company is Scatter Slots, whose revenue has exceeded $100 million since its release in 2015. Now the project earns about $2 million a month.
A distinctive feature of the project is an unusual setting and CA for the genre. The game is made in a dark fantasy style and is designed for a relatively young midcore audience. Usually slot players are older and prefer a lighter and less fantastic environment.
In total, there are about 12 projects in Murka’s portfolio. All belong to the slots genre.
The company has four offices — in Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Lviv. The total number of employees is about 100 people.
Who buys
The Blackstone Group is an American firm specializing in the purchase and investment of companies that are not public. He calls himself the world’s largest “alternative investor” (that is, one who invests in assets, not stocks). The total value of the company’s assets at the beginning of 2019 is $470 billion.
The firm owns: Hilton hotel chain, medical company Biomet, a manufacturer of carbonated beverages Orangina (among its products are Dr Pepper and Schweppes), an analytical company Nielsen Holdings, 20% of the Versace brand and many others.
Murka is almost the first video game asset of the company.
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