U.S based game maker, Riot Games announced through a blog post that Tencent Holdings, China’s Internet behemoth, has acquired a majority stake in the company.
The price negotiated is believed to be more than $350 million, according to Bloomberg. The deal will be finalized within the next 30 days.
Riot Games is the creator of League of Legends, a free multiplayer online game with more than one million gamers who spend more than half a billion minutes of playtime each month. Both companies aren’t new to each other. Tencent was an investor in Riot Games during its previous rounds of financing. The move to take up more stakes has highlighted Tencent’s goal to diversify its portfolio overseas.
“Tencent is committed to delivering premium quality online games to global gamers and Riot has proven its capability in the development of its flagship title,” said David Wallerstein, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent.
“Tencent will provide the Riot team with the support and autonomy to continue to deliver high quality experiences that impress both fans and critics in the global gaming market.”
Riot Games will remain in its Los Angeles headquarter and will hire aggressively in 2011. The new funding will be used to develop League of Legends further and also to launch new projects.
“This is exciting news for ‘League of Legends’ players and the existing Riot Games team,” said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games.
“Tencent’s investment will provide our talented team of designers, developers and community staff with additional resources to focus on innovating around ‘League of Legends’ and launching new projects that push the boundaries in the gaming space.”
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