Playtika has confirmed it’ll continue to seek out M&A opportunities after announcing its swoop for Dice Dreams maker SuperPlay.
Playtika announced its latest big-money deal yesterday, an acquisition worth $700m upfront then potentially a further $1.25bn if certain targets are met over the course of the next three years.
It could end up costing much more than the $1.2bn it said it had earmarked for M&A back in February of this year.
Nonetheless, president and CFO Craig Abrahams told investors in a conference call earlier today that the firm will still be seeking out deals. “M&A continues to be a key driver of growth for us – nine out of our top 11 titles came through M&A, and it will continue to be key for us,” said Abrahams.
On potential future acquisitions, he added: “They will probably be more of the ‘bolt on’ variety, like we did last year, but we will be continuing to look at opportunities to continue to grow our portfolio.”
CEO Robert Antokol also took the opportunity to talk up the firm’s potential in the ‘coin looter’ category, which has exploded recently thanks to Coin Master and particularly Monopoly Go. With Dice Dreams now in its portfolio, he said: “We believe we’re going to conquer this category. This is our vision”.
He also cited Playtika’s prior experience in the category through its acquisition of Jelly Button and Pirate Kings seven years ago.
Antokol added that the integration of SuperPlay’s business is likely to be smoother than in most acquisitions, due to the strong culture fit between the two companies – two of SuperPlay’s founders are ex-Playtika staff.
“When you look at the history of M&A, the thing that makes M&A fail is different DNA, different culture,” he added. “In this situation, because these guys came from our ‘university’ here in Playtika, these guys have our DNA, the culture is very similar and we understand each other.”
