Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd (ASX:AB1) has entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of nWay Inc for an upfront consideration of US$7.69 million.
nWay is a San Francisco based developer and publisher of competitive multiplayer games across mobile, consoles, and PC. The company has developed and published three games:
- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, the popular tag-team fighting game with cross-play functionality on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC;
- Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, an award-winning mobile fighting game on iOS and Android with over 50 million downloads; and
- ChronoBlade: nWay’s original mobile action role-playing game.
It's #TournamentThursdays and normally we'd shoutout a tournament, but this time let's open the floor a bit.
Be sure to let us know if you're hosting a tournament below or follow this thread and catch up on some #BFTG tournaments! pic.twitter.com/4m6SFFnbXT
— Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid (@Battle4TheGrid) December 13, 2019
It has been agreed that US$1.94 million of the US$7.69 million consideration is payable in cash and US$5.75 million is payable in fully paid ordinary shares of Animoca.
The acquisition is subject to shareholder approval, execution of a formal agreement, satisfactory completion of due diligence, and the obtaining of any necessary regulatory approvals.
Importantly, the acquisition of nWay will add to Animoca a strong, highly experienced team of game developers and executives.
The nWay team possesses considerable knowledge and experience in developing and publishing competitive, cross-play, real-time multiplayer games across all major gaming platforms.
Shift to multiplayer gaming
The acquisition will significantly bolster Animoca’s core games business capabilities, as real-time multiplayer gaming is becoming a dominant form of gaming on all platforms and the market for core gaming is moving from platform-specific gaming to cross-play gaming.
The nWay acquisition is in line with Animoca’s brands-based strategy, as nWay has a track record of developing successful games featuring top-tier intellectual property (Power Rangers).
Animoca co-founder and chairman Yat Siu said: “The acquisition of nWay is a historic day for Animoca Brands.
“Not only are we acquiring a company with experienced management, strong revenues, and successful branded games, but we are also immensely excited about the nWayPlay platform, which - among other advantages - will allow a new generation of developers to create multiplayer games without the many years of experience normally required for such tasks.”