Take-Two to buy ‘FarmVille’ maker Zynga for $11bn in largest-ever gaming deal

• Financial

Take Two Interactive Software, Inc., the New York City-based video game company founded by a Ryan Brant back in 1993, said earlier this week that the maker of immensely popular ‘Grand Theft Auto’ would purchase “Farmville” maker Zynga at an $11.04 billion cash-and-stock deal, largely in a bid to tap into mobile gaming industry as demands of on-the-go mobile games appear to be surging exponentially.

On top of that, latest move from Take-Two to purchase mobile games maker Zynga at a deal what happens to be the largest-ever in mobile gaming industry, metamorphosizing a critical centrepiece in gaming industry having had a market cap over $30 billion, came forth at a time while smartphone gaming trend has been spanning at a breakneck pace, in particular among adults and elderly alongside youth.

Besides, followed by the announcement, prices of Take-Two common stocks had closed out Tuesday’s Wall Street 4.01 per cent higher to $148.73 after surging as much as 3.69 per cent in pre-market trading.

Take-Two to purchase Zynga at an $11.04bn cash-and-stock deal

Besides, according to the financial terms of the deal, Take-Two, widely hailed for its adventure game “Red Dead Redemption,” would be paying off $3.50 in cash and $6.361 in stocks for each Zynga stock, representing a premium of 64 per cent according to Zynga’s Friday’s closing price, while the takeover deal in effect would be worth a whopping $12.7 billion including debts.

Meanwhile, citing an out and out optimism over the deal, Chief Executive of videogame consulting firm Kantan Games, Serkan Toto said, “It's a bombshell deal ... Zynga was on the list of potential M&A transactions for a long time in the video game business”.