Nazara to acquire gaming firm PublishMe

Pune: Nazara Technologies, India’s first and only listed gaming firm backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, is acquiring a majority stake in Publishme, the largest mobile game publishing agency in the Middle East and Turkey.The company will invest about Rs 20 crore for acquiring 69.82% stake in Publishme’s parent Arrakis Tanitim Organizasyon Pazarlama, by way of primary and secondary transactions via its subsidiary.Publishme is a full-service games marketing and publishing agency which works extensively with gaming publishers in Turkey and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Nazara already has a presence in India and across emerging and developed global markets such as Africa and North America. With this acquisition, Nazara expands its international footprint in the freemium segment, with an aim to build local execution capabilities cutting across key growth segments: freemium, gamified learning and esports.MENA is one of the fastest growing gaming markets, with an estimated market size of $4.8 billion, and over 160 million gamers—100 million of which play on mobile phones, Publishme CEO Özgür Özalp said. “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 deal, Publishme will become a full-fledged publisher in the MENA region.”"MENA is a key geography for us and this acquisition will help us in establishing ourselves as a key player in the region,” said Nitish Mittersain, founder and joint managing director, Nazara Technologies. “We are excited to have someone with deep regional knowledge and capabilities like Özgür and his team join the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network.”The ‘Friends of Nazara’ network comprises established gaming companies in which Nazara holds majority stakes and works actively with existing founders and management teams to rapidly achieve scale. These companies includeNodwin Gaming and SportsKeeda in the esports arena, Next Wave Multimedia, developer of World Cricket Championship (WCC), andPaper Boat Apps, developers of the popular gamified learning app Kiddopia.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/3qeslEJ
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