Zynga has announced a major new deal. The company bought the Chinese studio StarLark, which was previously owned by Betta Games. Now the publisher also has the rights to the mobile hit Golf Rival. The deal cost Zynga $525 million.Of this amount, $315 million will be paid in cash, and the remaining $210 million in Zynga shares.
The deal is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
With the new purchase, the company continues its global expansion and intends to gain a foothold in the Chinese market. The deal will open Zynga access to developers from China, and StarLark will have access to the expertise and extensive resources of the publisher.
The main project in the portfolio of the Chinese studio is the mobile PvP golf Golf Rival, which generated 6 million downloads in 2021 alone. According to Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau, this is the fastest growing game in the genre. At the same time, he does not consider Golf Rival to be a clone of its main competitor — Golf Clash from Playdemic studio, which Electronic Arts bought in June for $ 1.4 billion.
“Both of these projects are golf games, but Golf Rival has much more social functions, which Zynga also focuses on. We think it’s much more accessible and a little less hardcore,” Gibo said. According to him, the title has every chance to become a big franchise that will be able to earn over $ 100 million annually.
Under Gibo’s leadership, Zynga began to actively operate in the M&A market. Among the largest purchases of the company are Gram Games ($250 million), Small Giant Games ($560 million), Peak Games ($1.8 billion), Rollic Games ($180 million) and Chartboost ($250 million), a deal with which Zynga closed yesterday.