GREE to Acquire Pokelabo, Inc. to Form Strategic Business Partnership
TOKYO, Japan - October 24, 2012 - GREE, Inc. (“GREE”) today announced its decision to acquire all of the shares of Pokelabo, Inc. (“Pokelabo”), a leading mobile social game developer and publisher in Japan, making Pokelabo a wholly owned subsidiary with the aim of pursuing a strategic business partnership.
Since its establishment in November 2007, Pokelabo has grown as a developer focused on mobile and social content. Having shifted its operations into social game development when Japan's main social networking platforms opened to third-party providers of mobile social games, Pokelabo has a strong record in game development and publishing, backed by a string of popular games, including hit titles with more than two million registered users such as YAKYUTOMO! Probaseball Story and Samurai Senki. From 2012, Pokelabo concentrated its resources on smartphone application development and has already developed five native applications for smartphones, which have enabled it to achieve rapid growth. The Clan Battle of Fate reached No.2 in the App Store ranking of top-grossing games following its launch in June 2012, while Sangoku Infinity, launched in May 2012, reached No.3 in the same chart. Of Pokelabo's five native apps, four titles ranked within the top 20 on the App Store list of top-grossing games, while two titles charted in the top 20 of top-grossing games on Google Play.
Through this stock acquisition and the strategic business partnership with Pokelabo, GREE will further strengthen its development capabilities in mobile social games for smartphones, cooperating with Pokelabo in a range of areas, from sharing expertise to collaborating between development teams.
GREE will continue to build ties with developers and expand its content offering in its pursuit of developing the world's leading mobile social games ecosystem.
About Pokelabo, Inc.
Trade name | Pokelabo, Inc. |
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Representative | Yuta Maeda (Chief Executive Officer) |
Address | Minato-ku, Tokyo |
Established | November 8, 2007 |
Main business | Development and publishing of mobile social games |
Paid-in capital | ¥522 million (as of September 30, 2012) |
Major shareholders and shareholding ratios | DCM VI, L.P. 21.04% Incubate Fund No.1 Investment Limited Partnership 19.36% SEGA CORPORATION 19.10% Selene Limited Partnership 15.10% Corepeople Limited Partnership 15.10% |
Relationship between listed company and Pokelabo | Capital relationships: No relationships to disclose Personal relationships: No relationships to disclose Business relationships: No relationships to disclose |
Number of shares to be acquired, acquisition value, and status of holdings before and after transfer
Number of shares held by the Company before the transfer | - shares (Voting rights: none) (Shareholding: - %) |
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Number of shares scheduled to be acquired by the Company | 118,800 shares (Voting rights: 118,800) |
Acquisition value | Pokelabo, Inc. ¥13,870 million Advisory fees, etc. (estimate) ¥16 million Total (estimate) ¥13,886 million |
Number of shares to be held by the Company after the transfer | 118,800 shares (Voting rights: 118,800) (Shareholding: 100%) |
Schedule
October 30, 2012: Completion of acquisition (Scheduled)
This announcement is not expected to have a significant impact on business performance. If any material impact on performance is identified, it will be disclosed promptly.
About GREE, Inc.
GREE is a global mobile social gaming company at the forefront of mobile technology. GREE is focused on building the world's leading mobile social gaming ecosystem for users and developers, while creating and supporting unique free-to-play game content. GREE is continuing to expand globally and has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, London, Singapore, Seoul, Beijing, Amsterdam, Dubai, Sao Paolo, and Vancouver.
Contact Information
GREE, Inc. PR
Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
E-mail: pr@gree.co.jp
URL: https://corp.gree.net/jp/en/
Twitter: @GREE_pr_jp