Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese investment holding company and one of the largest Internet companies in the world, and owner of WeChat, is buying Supercell, the Finnish mobile development company behind Clash of Clans, for $8.6 billion.
Tencent will acquire up to 84% of Supercell from SoftBank which acquired 51% of the company in 2013 for a reported $2.1 billion. The transaction puts Supercell at an equity value of approximately $10.2 billion. For Tencent, this allows the company to grow its business outside China, while Supercell can take advantage of Tencent’s expertise and and large user base in China.
Once the transaction is complete, Supercell will be owned by a consortium established by Tencent and by Supercell’s employees. The company will continue to operate independently in Helsinki, Finland with its existing team. In addition, Supercell employees, whicg are already considered as equity holders, will be able to sell their vested shares annually to Tencent.
The transaction is expected to close in Q3 of 2016 after which SoftBank will no longer own any shares in SuperCell.
source: Tencent
