Take-Two Interactive to acquire Zynga

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According to The Verge, this acquisition is one of the biggest in video game history — ahead of Microsoft’s $7.5bn purchase of Bethesda, and Tencent’s $8.57bn acquisition of a majority stake in Supercell.

Take-Two, who already owns Rockstar and 2K Games, expects to close the deal in June. Zynga is one of the biggest mobile game developers in the world - and as such, the deal going through is another huge step forward in Take-Two’s position as an industry giant.

As part of the deal, Zynga will continue to operate as a standalone company. Although Zynga is best known for the dormant Farmville franchise, they have found success with their other mobile games - from Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells to Words with Friends.

Going forward, Zynga will be working on creating new mobile games for the iconic franchises within Take-Two publishing. Following the announcement, shares of Zynga surged up by nearly 48%.

According to CNBC, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said, “We are trying to build a business over a very long period of time. We’ve paid attention to creating value for our players, for our colleagues and for our shareholders, and that’s worked out over a very long period of time.”

Moreover, Zelnick said he expects the deal to create $100min annual cost synergies within the first two years after closing - as well as potential net bookings of at least $500m over time.