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India’s only listed gaming company Nazara Technologies acquires majority stake in Turkey and West Asia based gaming agency Publishme

The company looks to increase its international footprint using this acquisition

Gaming industry in India is expected to see rapid growth in the coming years

Gaming and sports media platform, Nazara Technologies Ltd has acquired a majority stake of 69.82% in Turkey and West Asia based mobile gaming publishing agency, Publishme. 

The acquisition of the majority stake was done by the way of primary and secondary transactions, with an acquisition value of INR 20 Cr.

This move by Nazara Technologies will help the company improve its international footprint, especially in the regions of Turkey and other West Asian countries. With its offerings already present in markets such as India, North America and Africa, the company can tap into an untouched market.

Manish Agarwal, chief executive officer, Nazara Technologies stated that the company will look to build local execution capabilities cutting across key growth segments such as freemium models, gamified learning and esports.

After becoming India’s first and only publicly listed gaming company back in March, 2021 and also being backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, this is the company’s first acquisition.

Currently, Nazara Technologies holds a majority stake in some of the biggest companies  of the gaming industry such as Nodwin Gaming, SportsKeeda, and Next Wave Multimedia- developer of World Cricket Championship (WCC), which is the world’s largest mobile based cricket simulation game. 

Using the Publishme acquisition, the company also hopes to expand the market and user base of the  companies where it holds a majority stake.

According to the information provided by the company in its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), ahead of its IPO, Nazara has about 40.17 Mn (4 Cr) monthly active users for the financial year 2020 and an average of 49.25 (4.9 Cr) monthly active users across all games for the six-month period till September 30, 2020.

As per Inc42 Plus analysis, India stands in the sixth position in the global mobile gaming market with market size of $1.2 Bn in 2020. China is in the leading position followed by the US, Japan, South Korea and the UK.

India’s mobile gamer base has grown to 326 Mn mobile gamers, with millions more coming under the umbrella as internet and smartphone penetration grows. According to 42 Matters, an app market data intelligence company, India is home to 5.4K game publishers on the Google Play Store, which is 3% of the total game publishers on the store.