Take-Two Interactive, maker of "Grand Theft Auto" and "Red Dead Redemption," is buying Zynga, maker of "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends," in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $12.7 billion.
The acquisition announced Monday would wed a powerhouse in console gaming, Take-Two, with a mobile gaming company with an almost cult-like following.
Zynga shareholders will receive $3.50 in cash and $6.36 in shares of Take-Two common stock for each share of Zynga outstanding stock at closing. The transaction is valued at $9.86 per share of Zynga common stock.
"This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity," Take-Two Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick said in a prepared statement. He will retain those roles when the companies become one.
READ MORE: Facebook rebrands as Meta to emphasize 'metaverse' virtual reality vision
Take-Two anticipates the deal will help bring about mobile versions of some of its console and personal computer based games.
Take-Two said Monday it anticipates approximately $100 million in annual cost savings within the first two years after the transaction is complete.
Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau and its president of publishing, Bernard Kim, will oversee the integration and day-to-day operations of the combined Zynga and T2 Mobile Games business, which will operate under the Zynga brand as its own label within the Take-Two.
Take-Two will also expand its board to 10 members upon closing, adding two members from Zynga's board.
The transaction includes a go-shop provision, giving Zynga 45 days to hear alternative proposals.
The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of Take-Two's fiscal 2023, ending June 30. It still needs approval of both Take-Two and Zynga stockholders. It has received approval from both companies' boards.
Shares of Zynga Inc., based in San Francisco, jumped 52.5 percent to $9.15. Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., based in New York City, fell 8.7 percent to $150.25.
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
The sounds of the world brought to New York for one night, and from there, to a club, concert hall…
PARIS (AP) -- Spanish-born fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died at age 88. The company that owns the Rabanne brand…
Although still in their 20s, actors Ben Platt and Noah Galvin are already performing veterans. Both have played dozens of…
Acclaimed science fiction author Octavia Butler offered insight into the place that space and its explorers occupy in our collective…
The year's nominees for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which also include Iron Maiden and the…
Brady says he's out of the game for real this time.
When folklorists went to the American South last century to record and preserve traditional string band music, they probably didn't…
A Santa Fe district attorney has filed involuntary manslaughter charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a…
For the first time in Super Bowl history, a pair of siblings will play each other on the NFL's grandest…
Ira "Bob" Born, a candy company executive known as the "Father of Peeps" for mechanizing the process to make the…
Williams credits included the films "American Graffiti" and "The Conversation." But she was by far best known for playing the…
The impact of the baby boom generation is impossible to ignore. The roughly 76 million people born between 1946 and…
Rainesford Stauffer is a freelance writer and Kentuckian. She is the author of "An Ordinary Age," and her upcoming book,…
A big part of luck is the way someone is thinking and behaving, psychology professor and author Richard Wiseman said.
