It’s not every day that a free-to-play online game publisher more than doubles in value. Yet that is precisely what happened with German publisher Bigpoint, when the company’s value jumped $350 million to more than $600 million, thanks to two private equity firms that purchased a majority stake in the company.
Part of the reason Bigpoint’s gained social game startup-like valuation is that it’s attained an audience numbering about 190 million players over nine years and made its revenue through the increasingly established free-to-play (and subsidized by microtransactions) business model. The company is based in Hamburg but is rapidly expanding in San Francisco and Brazil — and has more than 700 employees and is growing.
Summit Partners and TA Associates are acquiring the stake from Comcast Interactive Capital’s Peacock Equity Fund, which was previously NBC Universal’s fund. The fund purchased a 70 percent stake in 2008 for $110 million, so the majority stake has more than tripled in value over the past three years. The remaining 30 percent share will remain in the hands of Heiko Hubertz, the founder and CEO of Bigpoint.
“There is no big change for us,” Hubertz, who will remain in his position, said in an interview. “These are new shareholders who believe in our aggressive growth.”
[Source: VentureBeat]
