NCSOFT is moving to strengthen the mobile casual business it has identified as a new growth engine by acquiring German mobile game company JustPlay (JustPlay GmbH) for about 300 billion won.
NCSOFT disclosed on the 10th that it decided to acquire 17,696 shares of JustPlay for about 301.6 billion won. After the share purchase, the equity stake will be 70%. The scheduled share acquisition date is on the 30th of next month.
JustPlay, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, operates mobile casual games and a reward-based platform. It has a reward platform that provides tangible compensation when users play games.
NCSOFT said the purpose of this share acquisition is "to secure a key platform in the global mobile casual ecosystem for the expansion of the mobile casual business."
Earlier, NCSOFT pursued mergers and acquisitions (M&A) this year with three growth pillars: in-house intellectual property (IP) including massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs); new genres such as shooters and subculture; and mobile casual games. As part of that, in Aug. last year it established a "mobile casual center" dedicated to the mobile casual business and hired Anel Cheman—who helped multiple mobile game unicorns grow, including Tripledot Studios and Outfit7—as head of the center.
In Dec. last year, it invested $103.85 million (about 153.4 billion won) in Singapore's Indygo Group, the parent company for the acquisition of Vietnam-based casual game developer "Lihuhu," to secure a 67% equity stake. Along with this, it also bought domestic mobile casual studio Springcomes.
Hong Won-joon, NCSOFT chief financial officer (CFO), said during last month's earnings conference call, "The M&A we are pursuing in Europe is also in the final stage, so we expect it to be reflected in results from the second quarter," referring to the JustPlay acquisition.