By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry

GREE Buys Tokyo-Based Social Game Maker Pokelabo For US$173 Million [Social Games]

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Following Nexon’s US$469 million acquisition of gloops earlier this month, Japan’s social gaming industry saw another spectacular exit today.

GREE announced it plans to acquire Tokyo-based social game maker Pokelabo on October 30 – for a handsome US$173 million (13.8 billion yen), in an all-cash deal.

Founded in 2007, Pokelabo announced a capital partnership with Sega (which is holding 19.10%, making it the third-largest shareholder) in October last year.

In recent months, Pokelabo has managed to create a number of smartphone games that have been doing very well in the Japanese App Store and Google Play (example). This summer, the company also launched a card battle game called Mystic Monsters in English.

Pokelabo generated US$7 million in revenue and US$2 million in profit in the fiscal year ending September 2011. The company currently employs 91 people.

And here is Pokelabo’s revenue for 2012 (unit: 100 million yen):

More data can be found on GREE’s IR page (the two PDFs marked “2012/10/24”, Japanese only).

GREE’s last acquisition in this price range took place in the US when the company took over Funzio for US$210 million in May this year.

About the author

Dr. Serkan Toto

I am the CEO & Founder of Kantan Games Inc., an independent consultancy focused on Japan’s game industry.

Please feel free to connect via Email (Serkan at kantangames.com), LinkedIn or Twitter.

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By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry