Playtika, a leading mobile games company based in Israel, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of the Berlin-based casual games company Wooga. According to our sources in Berlin, the acquisition price is above €100 million.
Founded in 2009, Wooga is one of the most popular developers of casual mobile games. Over 180 employees from around the world develop high quality casual games with engaging stories at the core of the experience. Wooga’s aim is to play a memorable and positive part in people’s lives and create joyful moments every day — for players and employees. We’ve been following Wooga since the very beginning, and aside of many news articles about the company, we also interviewed Wooga founder and CEO Jens Begemann in 2010.
Until the acquistion by Playtika Wooga’s investors were Balderton Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Tenaya Capital. This acquisition marks a significant step in the execution of the Playtika’s diversification strategy into new game genres. Following the acquisition, half of Playtika’s titles will be casual games.
Playtika’s expansion into new game genres began in October 2017 with its acquisition of casual games company Jelly Button, which has since seen a twelve fold revenue growth. Following that success this acquisition will combine Wooga’s strong creative and story-driven capabilities with Playtika’s scale and data-driven expertise. Also, it will supercharge Wooga’s global growth and position Playtika as a fast-growing player in the casual games arena. Wooga’s CEO Jens Begemann will continue to lead the Wooga team from its Berlin headquarters and the company will continue leveraging the Wooga brand to attract the best talent from around the world.
“We see great opportunities for Playtika in the casual games genre and our acquisition of Wooga firmly positions us for this next phase of our evolution” said Robert Antokol, Playtika’s Founder and CEO. “Playtika’s strengths in live-ops, advanced AI and personalization at scale will serve as a springboard for Wooga’s creativity in ideating and developing winning story-led titles. Together we’ll bring audiences worldwide a whole new level of game experiences that never cease to captivate and engage. Wooga are a driven and passionate team with a strong leadership and we’re thrilled to have them join the Playtika family.”
“This is an amazing day for Wooga. Becoming part of Playtika is opening the next chapter in the history of our company”, said Jens Begemann, Co-founder & CEO of Wooga. “It is a very natural fit for both parties: We have the expertise in creating and launching story-driven casual games, Playtika has the technologies to help us scale and reach new audiences to continue our growth.”
