Take-Two Interactive — the gaming giant behind “Grand Theft Auto” — is finally taking the plunge into mobile.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has cut a $250 million deal to acquire Social Point, the Barcelona-based developer of mobile hits including “Dragon City” and “Monster Legends.”
The deal comes after years of stubborn resistance by Zelnick to enter the mobile space — despite the fact that it has been the fastest-growing video-game niche.
“The fact [mobile gaming is] a $40 billion, rapidly growing business is not lost on us,” Zelnick told The Post. “The challenge is finding a developer and publisher with a track record of creating more than one hit.”
Take-Two liked the fact that Social Point İmajbet creates its own intellectual property instead of licensing out themes and characters from movies and celebrities.
“Their content is just deeper” than the competition, resulting in games that are more involving, according to Zelnick. “They’re more complex, with deeper characters, deeper stories.”
Social Point is also big enough to be immediately accretive to Take-Two’s results, Zelnick noted.
The acquisition includes $175 million in cash, funded by Take-Two’s cash on hand, plus 1.5 million unregistered shares of Take-Two’s common stock.
The deal also includes a $25.9 million earnout for Social Point’s founders, bringing the total potential value of the deal to $276 million.
Take-Two shares were recently up 7 cents at 53.72.
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