TIDMKWS
RNS Number : 1893Z
Keywords Studios PLC
13 December 2017
13(th) December 2017
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
Acquisition of Sperasoft
Services Extended into Co-Development, expanding Engineering
Service Line
Entry into Eastern Europe
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider
to the global video games industry, today announces that it has
acquired Sperasoft Inc and Sperasoft Studio LLC (together,
"Sperasoft"), for a total consideration of $27 million from the
founders Igor Efremov, Alexei Kudriashov and Mark Rizzo (the
"Sellers").
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Sperasoft provides
game development, art creation and software engineering services to
video game developers and publishers around the world from its
production studios in St Petersburg and Volgograd, Russia and
Krakow, Poland.
Founded in 2004, Sperasoft employs 400 software engineers and
artists. The company offers a full range of services for initial
game development as well as developing games in live operations.
Specifically, these services include:
-- Full game development and co-development in which Sperasoft
will develop the game or an area of the game on behalf of the game
company, including creating the art assets for the game.
-- Live operations in which Sperasoft develops new features and
downloadable content packages to ensure the games they support
continue to keep players excited and engaged.
-- Server side infrastructure development and network operations
support in helping build and maintain massive online platforms to
support multiplayer online games.
-- Porting and remastering services in which Sperasoft will
adapt a game to run on a different platform or upgrade a game for
an older generation platform to a run on current generation devices
including the remastering of the art and animation.
Over the years, Sperasoft has delivered consistent high quality
work for its clients including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warner
Bros and Riot Games. For instance, the company is proud of the
recent work of its St Petersburg studio, which worked alongside
five of Ubisoft's internal studios to develop Assassin's Creed:
Origins, which launched to critical acclaim on 27(th) October
2017.
The acquisition of Sperasoft is in line with Keywords Studios'
strategy to grow organically and by acquisition as it selectively
consolidates the highly fragmented market for video game services.
Sperasoft adds considerable expertise and scale to Keywords new and
growing Engineering Services business and adds additional scale to
the Art creation business. In joining the Group, Sperasoft also
provides Keywords with production centres and supporting management
in Russia and Poland which are important locations for video game
services talent across all of Keywords service lines.
Igor, Alexei, Mark and the rest of the Sperasoft team will
remain with the business and assist the wider group with its growth
plans in Engineering Services and in developing the wider business
within Eastern Europe.
Sperasoft has grown steadily over the years increasing revenues
from $10.4m in 2015 to $16m in 2016. It is anticipated to grow to
approximately $20m for the year ending 31 December 2017. The
underlying adjusted EBITDA for 2017 is expected to be approximately
$2m.
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be
earnings enhancing in the first year, Keywords is paying a total
consideration of $27m. This is being satisfied by $22m in cash,
$1.0m of which is deferred until the first anniversary of the
acquisition, funded from the Group's existing resources. The
remainder is being satisfied by the issue of 260,049 new ordinary
shares in Keywords, which will be issued to the Sellers on the
first anniversary of the acquisition and will then be subject to
orderly market provisions for a further 12 months.
Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios,
commented:
"The acquisition of Sperasoft provides us with an entry point
into co-development, positioning us as a strategic partner to games
developers at the early stages of the games development lifecycle.
As games are becoming bigger and are higher definition, game
developers are increasingly relying upon co-development
arrangements with companies like Sperasoft to provide them with
broader capability to develop both initial games and additional
content and features post launch.
"Sperasoft adds considerably to our engineering services
division which we intend to continue to build organically and
through acquisition, as well as significantly enlarging our range
of services and geographic footprint.
"We are delighted to welcome Sperasoft to the Keywords family
and we look forward to working closely with their highly talented
team to build upon their strong industry reputation and
relationships with some of the world's leading games developers and
publishers."
Igor Efremov, Chief Executive Officer of Sperasoft,
commented:
"We are delighted to be joining Keywords Studios in a union that
we believe will enable Sperasoft to grow and expand our offering to
our existing partners as part of a larger group. We look forward to
working with other members of the Group as we are confident that
our vision and commitment to providing the very best support to the
video games industry is very much aligned."
For further information, please contact:
Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Andrew Day, Chief Executive
Officer
David Broderick, Chief Financial
Officer
Giacomo Duranti, Chief Operating
Officer +353 190 22 730
Numis (Financial Adviser)
Stuart Skinner / Kevin Cruickshank
(Nominated Adviser)
James Black / Tom Ballard
(Corporate Broker) 020 7260 1000
MHP Communications (Financial 020 3128 8100
PR) keywords@mhpc.com
Katie Hunt / Ollie Hoare
About Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Keywords Studios is an international technical services provider
to the global video games industry. Established in 1998, and now
with 42 facilities in 20 countries strategically located in Asia,
the Americas and Europe, it provides integrated art creation,
software engineering, testing, localisation, audio and customer
care services across more than 50 languages and 16 games platforms
to a blue-chip client base in more than 15 countries. It has a
strong market position, providing services to 23 of the top 25 most
prominent games companies, including Activision Blizzard, Bandai
Namco, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Konami, Riot Games, Sony, Square
Enix, Supercell, TakeTwo, and Ubisoft. Recent titles worked on
include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare,
Mortal Combat X, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Battlefield 1,
Overwatch, World of Warcraft: Legion, Hearthstone, Clash Royale,
and Mobile Strike. Keywords Studios is listed on AIM, the London
Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L).
About Sperasoft (www.sperasoft.com)
Established in 2004, Sperasoft is a leading games development
company with development centres in USA, Poland and Russia
specialising in Art, Engineering, full SKU development and
co-development. Sperasoft works closely with its partners to
deliver high-quality titles for world-class game development
studios and publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Riot
Games, Warner Brothers and Sony. Recent titles worked on include:
Assassin Creed Origins, Mass Effect Andromeda, League of Legends,
Star Wars Battlefront, Kill Strain, Quantum Break, Immortals,
Injustice Gods Among Us.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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