February 4, 2011
China's Tencent Buys Riot Games for $400 Million
By Peter Kafka
Tencent, the giant Chinese Web holding company, has bought Los Angeles-based Riot Games for about $400 million.
It’s yet another big-dollar buyout for the game industry, which has been in an M&A frenzy for about a year, and one of the biggest investments by a Chinese company in an American digital property.
The transaction was first reported by Bloomberg, and Riot confirmed the deal to VentureBeat, though neither outlet has the financial details. Here’s how they break down, according to people familiar with the transaction:
- Tencent, which had already invested in the game maker, will pay “just south” of $400 million to buy out other investors, primarily Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital, which along with angels had put approximately $18 million into the company.
- The company’s management team will receive some portion of that buyout themselves, but will also retain an equity stake; some will receive “stay packages.”
- The total investment values the company at $472 million.
To read the entire article, click here.
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TEDActive 2012
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NYC BigApps 3.0 Hackathon
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Ingenuity 2011
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Prepping to Pitch: Non-Debt-Based Financing For Green/Tech Businesses
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NYC@Boston Day
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Venture Talks: A Conversation with Amish and Rick
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General Assembly + Gramercy Labs Speaker Series
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Montgomery Technology Conference
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OnMedia NYC 2011
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