Tencent to acquire Sumo Digital for $1.27 billion

(Image credit: Sumo Radical)

The esurient Tencent is set to take on the Sumo Group, a U.K.-founded developer with 14 studios global, for $1.27 one million million (£928 million, thanks Guardian). Tencent already had a minority stake in Sumo before this only, presuming Sumo's shareholders accept 513p per share (they're currently selling for just subordinate 500p thanks to a 40% empale following the announcement), will soon add it to the simply enormous list of developers information technology owns.

Tencent's acquisitions can be hard to keep track of. Parthian year it bought a whopping 31 gaming companies, to bestow to investments in companies like Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Riot and Epical. It's the world's largest gambling company (and Nationalist China's second biggest technical school firm) and gets bigger almost weekly.

Sumo is perhaps better-known for its long-running human relationship with Sega, which has resulted in roughly class work from the studio: Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast was an unconditioned peach. Its most recent release was Hood: Outlaws &adenosine monophosphate; Legends, and it also created the Sonic &A; Sega All-Stars Racing series, has developed some decent LittleBigPlanet spinoffs, and has through with work-for-employ on a huge number of serial publication, including the likes of Hitman, Forza Horizon, and Crackdown.

Crackdown 3 angry people. — (Image credit: Microsoft)

Sumo was based in Sheffield and was real much the spiritual successor to Gremlin Mutual and Infogrames. The three founders all came from that honourable development house and still work at Sumo: CEO Carl Cavers official in a statement that he and the others, Paul Doorkeeper and Darren Robert Mills, are "passionate some what we do and are full bound up to continuing in our roles."

Read on for more hot acquisition chat. Cavers writes of the proposed deal: "The opportunity to work with Tencent is one we just now couldn't miss. It would bring another property to Sumo, presenting opportunities for us to truly stamp our mark on this amazing industry, in ways which have antecedently been out of reach."

"Tencent has a strong track enter for backing management teams and their existing strategies. Aboard the speedup of ain-IP work, Tencent has incontestable its dedication to backing our client work and has stated its intention to ensure that we undergo the necessary investment to continue focusing on work with our key strategic partners along tour-key and co-development projects," ending "the time to come for Sumo looks more galvanizing than ever."

Happening the Tencent side, there's the usual stuff about accelerating growth, the smell of innovation, and delivering compelling value for shareholders. So I spared you it. Now: Sumo? Time to crack on with another Outrun please.