Games Investment and M&A to Q3 2011 pushing towards double 2010

This article first published on GamesBeat, Gamasutra and GamesIndustry.biz

Games investment bank Digi-Capital has just released the Q3 transaction update of its 2011 Global Games Investment Review (free download at www.digi-capital.com). Commenting on transactions this year, Digi-Capital Managing Director Tim Merel said, “As we expected at the start of the year, games investment and M&A have accelerated again. Even though Q3 2011 has just finished, global games investment so far this year is pushing towards double that of 2010, and global games M&A more than double the level of 2010. There have been blockbuster transactions like EA/PopCap, but there have been many other investments, mergers and acquisitions across sectors with increasing deal sizes. In terms of where the action is, social, mobile, social-mobile, browser based MMO and cloud gaming are leading the charge, and as we expected there has been significant activity originating from China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the US. Companies have been generally less forthcoming on how much they are paying for M&A targets this year, which may indicate that not just the headline games deals continue to have strong valuations. While the macro-environment remains challenging, the fundamental growth in online/mobile games continues to drive games investment and M&A forward. We still believe that now is a great time for the strongest independent online/mobile games companies to either invest for growth, or take advantage of the market to look for strategic exits. In that regard, we’re increasingly taking equity stakes in great games companies that we believe have global potential, as well as our traditional games fundraising, investment and M&A advisory work.”