Gaming and sports media platform, Nazara Technologies Ltd. has made its first acquisition after it listed on exchanges in March this year.
The company has signed a binding term sheet to acquire West Asia- and Turkey-based mobile gaming publishing agency, Publishme in a primary and secondary purchase worth $2.7 million.
As part of the deal, Nazara will acquire 69.82% of the company, as it looks to strengthen its presence in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
“We operate across key gaming segments of premium Esports and gamified learning and have a strong presence in North America and India. Now if any of these entities will have to expand their footprint into newer geographies, they would like to acquire execution capabilities. And if we have to expand our business in the MENA region we will need publishing and hence the Publishme acquisition helps us in this strategic growth,” said Manish Agarwal, chief executive officer, Nazara Technologies, in an interaction with Mint.
“And for the content to succeed one has to understand the local cultural resonance, whether it is for the content itself or for marketing of the content,” Agarwal added.
Publishme is a full-service games marketing and publishing agency that works extensively with gaming companies and brands in Turkey and MENA region. At present, the company’s clientele includes Garena, My.Games, and Lokum Games, among others.
“We are delighted to join Nazara and lead the company’s foray in the MENA region. MENA is one of the fastest growing gaming markets, with an estimated market size of $4.8 billion and has over 160 million gamers in the region (of which 100mn are mobile gamers). Our alliance with Nazara offers a unique blend of network, global reach and local capabilities to further the growth of the gaming industry in the region. With this, Publishme will become a full-fledged publisher in the MENA region,” said Özgür Özalp, CEO, Publishme.
At present, Nazara owns a majority stake in several companies — Paper Boat Apps, a kid’s gamified learning platform; Nodwin Gaming, an Esports gaming company; Absolute Sports, owner of multi-sports content platform Sportskeeda; Nextwave Multimedia, developer of cricket simulation game World Cricket Championship (WCC); along with Halaplay, a fantasy gaming platform, and Sports Unity, creator of quiz game ‘Qunami’.
More than 80% of Nazara’s revenues currently come from North America and Indian geographies, added Agarwal.
“MENA is a key geography for us and this acquisition will help us in establishing ourselves as a key player in the region. We are excited to have someone with deep regional knowledge and capabilities like Özgür and his team join the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network,” said Nitish Mittersain, founder and joint managing director at Nazara Technologies.
For the financial year ending March 2021, Nazara’s revenues surged 83% to ₹454 crore. While gamified early learning and Esports together contributed 76% to total revenues, the company reported a profit at the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) level worth ₹45 crore against a loss of ₹5.6 crore last fiscal year.
This article was first published on livemint.com