Game company Kabam acquires Phoenix Age
Kabam, a free-to-play gaming company recently announced that it had acquired Phoenix Age, a video game studio based in San Francisco. Details of the purchase were not made available to the public. Kabam has been hinting at an IPO recently and the purpose of its acquisition strategy is to bolster its game offerings.
"Phoenix Age's hit games and world-class talent further solidify Kabam's leadership role in the free-to-play games space while expanding Kabam into new genres," Kent Wakeford, Kabam's Chief Operating Officer said in a statement.
Founded in 2009, Phoenix Age is the developer behind the popular games Underworld Empire and Castle Age. Both games are available on Apple's iOS platform, while Underworld can also be accessed through Facebook. The company also has a third game in development. The firm's 44 employees will continue to work out of its existing offices.
In a statement, Edwin Shew, co-founder of Phoenix Age, said that becoming part of Kabam will instantly allow his startup to scale its games to a global level. He added that the experience, expertise and infrastructure provided by Kabam will allow the company to grow in a way that it couldn't have done independently.
Kabam described the purchase as its first 2014 acquisition, implying that there will be more over the course of the year. Last year the company was valued at $700 million and its games grossed more than $100 million by the end of 2013.
Since its founding in 2006, Kabam has made seven acquisitions including Phoenix Age. The other companies include Exploding Barrel Games, WonderHill, Fearless Studios, Gravity Bear, Wild Shadow Studios and Balanced Worlds.