Voodoo announces the beginning of expansion into the casual games market. The French publisher acquired the Israeli studio Beach Bum. She specializes in board and card games for mobile platforms. Its monthly revenue exclusively from IAP can be about $4 million.
Spades Royale
The terms of the takeover by the participants of the transaction were not disclosed.
There is no data on payments or their nature. However, according to Globes sources, the size of the agreement could amount to $250-300 million. But the sources of the TechCrunch resource were not ready to name a specific amount. They also believe that we are talking about several hundred million dollars. However, they also clarify that it is difficult to name the exact figure due to the nature of the agreement: Voodoo paid for Beach Bum not only in cash, but also with its shares. Also, possible bonuses should be included in the amount.
According to Voodoo, Beach Bum’s earnings from all monetization tools have reached $70 million over the past year. Starting from this amount, we can assume that the estimate of $ 250-300 million for the company is cautious. Taking into account all possible future payments, which are likely to depend on the company’s performance, the transaction may well turn out to be much larger. But this is nothing more than our assumption.
The acquisition of Beach Bum in Voodoo is called an important stage in portfolio diversification. The company is going to gain a foothold in the casual products market. Also, one of the primary tasks for herself, she sees a decrease in the share of revenue coming from advertising. Voodoo is interested in the growth of cash flow coming from in-game micropayments. They are just going to get some kind of expertise in this from the acquired team.
It’s funny, but it’s a stretch to attribute Beach Bum to the developers of casual games, as Voodoo does in its official message. Yes, all three projects of the studio — Lord of the Board (backgammon), Spades Royale (spades) and Gin Rummy Stars (rami) — relate to table entertainment, but visually the developers appeal (to the point of confusion) more to social casinos.
Beach Bum has been on the market for a long time. The studio has been operating since 2015. Since that time, the company has achieved not only a significant financial turnover, but also a stable MAU of 2 million people. As for downloads, according to AppMagic, the Israeli team’s games have been downloaded about 20 million times over the entire time. Now the studio employs more than 100 employees. She previously attracted a round of funding from Saban Ventures and North83.
Fun fact: The developer was founded by Gigi Levy-Weiss and Uri Shahak, co-founders of Playtika, which earlier this year entered the stock market with a valuation of $11 billion. They left the active management of Beach Bum a couple of years ago. However, Gigi is still there on the board of directors.