Today, holding company Leyou announced that it has entered into exclusive talks with megaconglomerate Tencent to be acquired. The announcement was made shortly after stock ceased trading. As part of this discussion, Leyou will not be entertaining any other bidders at the current time and is talking solely with Tencent Mobility Limited, a subsidiary of Tencent.
A short while ago, we shared the news that Sony was potentially preparing a bid to purchase Hong Kong-based Leyou. Leyou owns multiple game development studios including Digital Extremes, the developers of Warframe, as well as Splash Damage, who most recently developed Gears Tactics. Leyou also owns publisher Athlon Games, as well as studios Kingmaker and Radiance Games. Leyou also holds a 20% stake in Certain Affinity.
At this time, it appears that Sony has been outbid, though it’s worth pointing out that these are exclusive discussions and an agreement for Leyou being acquired by Tencent may not be reached.
In 2019, Sony acquired Insomniac Games for $229 million, a purchase that was mainly made in cash. Sony also just invested $250 million into Epic Games, acquiring a very small minority stake. If Sony had won the bid for Leyou, it could’ve integrated the new teams into Sony Worldwide Studios. Meanwhile, Tencent has invested in countless studios and publishers, acquiring majority and minority stakes in companies like PlatinumGames.
