HERZLIYA, Israel and ISTANBUL, Turkey, Nov. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Playtika Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: PLTK) (“Playtika”), a mobile gaming entertainment and technology market leader with a portfolio of top casual titles, today announced execution of an agreement for a $25 million minority investment in Turkish mobile gaming company Ace Games (“Ace”). Ace is the developer of Fiona’s Farm, a free-to-play innovative casual mobile game that expertly and uniquely combines the mechanics of Match-3, farming, decoration, and narrative-driven games into one immersive mobile gaming experience for players.
Ace was founded in 2020 by its Chief Executive Officer, Hakan Bas, co-founder of Peak Games, the developer of Toy Blast and Toon Blast (sold for $1.8 billion). It is led by an experienced and talented team of industry veterans from companies like Dream Games and Playrix, and the team has a proven track record in the mobile casual gaming space.
“Our investment in Ace Games is an important milestone in the execution of our new games investment strategy as Playtika continues to seek exposure to high-growth potential game IP in cost-effective ways,” said Robert Antokol, Chief Executive Officer of Playtika. “The talented team at Ace has built a best-in-class and innovative product on the ‘Match-3 and Meta’ game model. Playtika can greatly complement Ace with our LiveOps and Digital Studio capabilities, leveraging our enhanced monetization and game operations leadership in mobile gaming.”
“Playtika has an unrivaled reputation for delivering superior in-game experiences, scaling mobile games to global dominance in their respective categories,” said Hakan Bas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ace. “We are excited to be teaming up with Playtika as an investor and partner that will help us continue to grow this title, and possibly others, into leading mobile game franchises.”
About Playtika Holding Corp.
Playtika is a mobile gaming entertainment and technology market leader with a portfolio of multiple game titles. Founded in 2010, Playtika was among the first to offer free-to-play social games on social networks and, shortly after, on mobile platforms. Headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, and guided by a mission to entertain the world through infinite ways to play, Playtika has employees across offices worldwide.
About Ace Games
Ace Games is a next generation global mobile gaming studio with a novel approach to the casual gaming genre. Founded in 2020 by Hakan Bas (Co-Founder of Peak Games, acquired by Zynga) and backed by NfX and Actera, the company is currently working on the global launch of its Match-3 game – Fiona’s Farm – with a unique triple layer meta gameplay. Ace is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey and powered by a multi-generational approach with the aim to become a true interactive gaming powerhouse.
Forward Looking Information
In this press release, we make “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Further, statements that include words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “present,” “preserve,” “project,” “pursue,” “will,” or “would,” or the negative of these words or other words or expressions of similar meaning may identify forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking statements include without limitation:
- our reliance on third-party platforms, such as the iOS App Store, Facebook, and Google Play Store, to distribute our games and collect revenues, and the risk that such platforms may adversely change their policies;
- our reliance on a limited number of games to generate the majority of our revenue;
- our reliance on a small percentage of total users to generate a majority of our revenue;
- our free-to-play business model, and the value of virtual items sold in our games, is highly dependent on how we manage the game revenues and pricing models;
- our inability to complete acquisitions and integrate any acquired businesses successfully could limit our growth or disrupt our plans and operations;
- our inability to enhance the monetization and game operations in our investments;
- we may be unable to successfully develop new games;
- our ability to compete in a highly competitive industry with low barriers to entry;
- we have significant indebtedness and are subject to the obligations and restrictive covenants under our debt instruments;
- legal or regulatory restrictions or proceedings could adversely impact our business and limit the growth of our operations;
- risks related to our international operations and ownership, including our significant operations in Israel, Ukraine and Belarus and the fact that our controlling stockholder is a Chinese-owned company;
- our reliance on key personnel;
- the closing conditions in the agreement are not met or our inability to complete the investment for any reason;
- security breaches or other disruptions could compromise our information or our players’ information and expose us to liability; and
- our inability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary information could adversely impact our business.
Additional factors that may cause future events and actual results, financial or otherwise, to differ, potentially materially, from those discussed in or implied by the forward-looking statements include the risks and uncertainties discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
Media Contact:
Darlan Monterisi
darlanm@playtika.com
Investor Contact:
David Niederman
davidni@playtika.com
GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8701060