Swedish gaming giant Modern Times Group (MTG) has bought Indian startup Playsimple for $360 million, the two companies announced on Friday. The acquisition follows PlaySimple, an India-based developer of word games, which in 2020 increased its revenues to $83 million. The $150 million rewards will be used for certain undisclosed indicators and hits, the companies said.
There is also a further $150 million reward if certain unrelated performance indicators are exceeded, said the two companies in a joint statement. The other $360 million ($26.91 crore) of which is a $1.50 million ($11.21 crore) reward for the company if it succeeds in achieving certain performance metrics.
PlaySimple is one of the most exciting and fastest-growing mobile gaming companies in India. The company has data-driven management and a proven track record of developing several successful free-to-play games with over 75 million installations and more than 19 million DAU (daily active users) in all titles. PlaySimple has also developed a world-class advertising infrastructure that offers opportunities to improve monetization through efficient user acquisition and cross-promotion across the game vertical.
The acquisition of Play simple diversifies the portfolio of MTGs and encompasses a wider variety of game genres. The company says the game has amassed over 75 million installed and maintains over 2 million active daily users and plans to launch a number of games in the new year, particularly in the expanded card game genre. In the future, the company plans to launch up to four new games per year in the card games category.
The acquisition of Play simple is a perfect fit for MTG as it strengthens MTG’s position in the casual game genre and provides access to the rapidly growing word game genre. It also strengthens the position of MTGs among female gaming audiences and provides access to a key talent pool in India.
The company, founded in 2014 by Siddharth Jain, Suraj Nalin, Siddhanth Jain and Preeti Reddy, has developed an insightful portfolio of 9 informal video games dedicated to daily crosswords such as WordTrip, WordJam, WordWar, WordTrek, and Solitaire. Two (4) additional video games and one card video game mark a whole new style for the company.
The company will receive 77% of the amount in cash, with the remainder paid out in the form of company shares. The performance-related earn-out payments will total $128.7 million. And not only that, it will be an additional $150 million for PlaySimple if it meets certain undisclosed parameters.
