While the world awaits on an official confirmation for Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, another monster deal that was revealed earlier this year has already been approved. As of this moment, Take-Two has completed its acquisition of mobile developer Zynga for an insane $12.7 billion. The deal was revealed this past January and was officially approved by the shareholders of both parties just last week, allowing the deal to go through and be completed at the beginning of this week. The proprietary owners of Grand Theft Auto have now gained a mammoth library of new mobile IPs.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that this acquisition represents a huge step forward for both companies. “We are excited for Zynga’s next-generation mobile platform, free-to-play expertise, diverse offering of games and incredible team to join the Take-Two family.” Zelnick also called the deal a “pivotal step” in the company’s future attempts to bring out their potential mobile entries. Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau also added to this showing great exclaim for the acquisition. “We are eager to continue building an unparalleled portfolio of games that will reach broader markets and lead to continued growth for this next chapter of Zynga’s history.”
Due to the acquisition, Zynga’s shares will no longer appear on the NASDAQ stock market and are no longer tradeable, as all assets now belong to Take-Two. As we stated, and at $12.7 billion, this is one of the biggest completed video game purchases in the history of the industry. However, that number is most certainly going to be dwarfed whenever the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard $68.7 billion deal is fully approved. The former states that the deal’s completion is “moving fast” despite concerns from the Federal Trade Commission.