Confirmed: Tencent acquires majority stake in Supercell

Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Supercell, creator of the popular Clash of Clans mobile title, in a deal valuing the studio at US$10.2-billion.

The deal will see Tencent acquire up to 84% of the company, a press release stated.

“Following the transaction, Supercell will be owned by the consortium (led by Tencent) and by Supercell’s employees,” it added.

“Every employee will take part in a new long-term incentive plan, and will be able to sell their vested shares annually to Tencent.”

The agreement will also see Supercell continuing to operate independently, retaining their Helsinki headquarters and existing team.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.

Read more: Tencent in talks to acquire Clash of Clans developer – report

Supercell CEO and co-founder Ilkka Paananen explained the decision in a blog post.

“We founded this company to make great games that people all over the world would play for decades. We have been very lucky as over the past six years we’ve released four top games that are now played by over 100 million people every single day. But more than this, we dream of our current and future games becoming a part of the rich history of games, living onto the very long term. And if you take this very long-term view, you quickly realise that we are still at the beginning of what will hopefully be a very long journey,” Pannanen elaborated.

“As we started to spend more time getting to know potential strategic partners, it became apparent to us that a partnership with Tencent would secure everything that has made Supercell a success, while also enabling us to take a few pretty big leaps on this journey I mentioned above.”

The Supercell CEO cited studio independence, access to more gamers than any other country via Tencent platforms, a mutual passion for games and the ability to keep the studio privately held as four main reasons to go for the deal.

“The total equity value of US$10.2-billion also recognises the value of the phenomenal company that our people have built.”