Israeli giant Playtika has said it’ll spent up to $450m on M&A over the next three years – and also plans to resume new game launches, with three new titles in the pipeline.
Wooga’s Claire’s Chronicles, SuperPlay’s Disney Solitaire and a new slots game should launch in the next 18 months, Playtika said during its Q4 and full-year earnings call. Two years ago, Playtika said it would not launch any new games until market conditions improved.
Instead, it has repeated again and again its strategy of buying up high potential titles that are already gathering pace. This was the thinking behind the acquisition of Animals and Coins maker InnPlay Labs for an initial $80m (potentially rising to $300m) in September 2023. In September 2024, Playtika bought Dice Dreams and Domino Dreams maker SuperPlay for an initial $700m, with an additional consideration of up to $1.25bn.
Animals and Coins and Governor of Poker were noted as highlights during Q4, while SuperPlay’s titles, Domino Dreams and Dice Dreams, contributed $48m in the three months ended December 31 2024.
Playtika CEO Robert Antokol was also asked about King’s Candy Crush Solitaire, which looks to be taking on Playtika’s Solitaire Grand Harvest in the competitive solitaire subgenre. He described the launch as a great opportunity for the space that could grow the solitaire game market overall.
Q4 results (all % changes are year-over-year):
- $650.3m revenue, up 1.9%
- DTC revenue of $174.6m, up 8%
- Net loss of $16.7m, meaning net income was down 144.8%
- Credit Adjusted EBITDA of $183.9m, down 2.6%
- Cash and cash equivalents of $565.8m as of December 31 2024
Other Q4 selected highlights (all changes are year-over-year):
- Number of average daily paying users: 339K, up 10.8%
- Casual games revenue up 11.3%
- Social casino games revenue down 10%
- Bingo Blitz revenue of $159.1m, up 5.8%
- Slotomania revenue of $118.4m, down 13.5%
- Solitaire Grand Harvest revenue of $72.5m, down 4.3%
Full year 2024 results (all results are compared to the year prior):
- Revenue of $2.5bn, down from $2.6bn
- DTC revenue of $694.2m, up from $639.4m
- Net income of $162.2m, down from $235m
- Credit Adjusted EBITDA of $757.7m, down from $832.2m
- Free cash flow of $396.8m, down from $436.4m
FY2025 outlook:
- Expected revenue between $2.8-2.85bn (not a huge rise on FY24’s $2.5bn)
- Expected Credit Adjusted EBITDA between $715-740m (down from FY24’s $757.7m)
- Expected capital expenditures of $95m
Playtika CEO Robert Antokol added: “We are thrilled with the progress we have made in executing our return to growth strategy, highlighted by our successful acquisition of SuperPlay. Looking ahead, we are excited by our pipeline of new games and continued M&A opportunities, which we believe will drive consistent topline growth and create value for our shareholders.”
