One of China’s internet giants, Tencent, is near a deal to buy control of Supercell, the maker of the popular Clash of Clans game, in a transaction that would value the Finnish game company at more than $9 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
If completed, the deal would show the growing might of China’s online behemoths. Tencent, along with Alibaba and Baidu, has become a sprawling empire of internet businesses. With a market value of about $211 billion, Tencent controls WeChat, the popular messaging service in China, as well as a number of online multiplayer games hosted through its QQ portal.
A deal for Supercell would be the biggest takeover by any of China’s so-called BAT trio of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, according to data from Standard & Poor’s Global Market Intelligence.
Buying Supercell, which has produced a string of mobile game hits with Clash of Clans, Hay Day and Clash Royale, would further bolster Tencent’s presence in the mobile game market. Tencent is already China’s dominant online game company, accounting for about 32 percent of revenue from the country’s online game market in 2015, according to Niko Partners, a research firm. The company also owns Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, a blockbuster PC battle game with an estimated 98.4 million players and $150 million a month in revenue, according to SuperData Research.
(Source: New York Times )