Israel's Playtika to Acquire Maker of Diamond Dash, Tropicats

(Bloomberg) -- Israeli gaming company Playtika Ltd. has acquired Berlin’s Wooga Gmbh, a maker of story-driven games for mobile phones.

The Wooga deal comes just over a year after Playtika bought Israel’s Jelly Button Games Ltd. in its first foray outside its core market of casino-based games.

The most recent transaction, announced in a statement Monday, valued Wooga at about $100 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named because the talks were private.

Wooga, founded in 2009 and with 180 employees, had previously raised around $30 million, with backers including Highland Capital Partners and Balderton Capital.

Playtika and its peers are looking for additional revenue as they seek to attract younger players. The gaming market will bring in about $138 billion in revenue in 2018, according to Newzoo.

Earlier this year, Playtika, based in Herzliya, Israel, announced a new investment arm that will target companies already profitable or near breakeven. In 2016, Caesars Interactive Entertainment sold Playtika to Shanghai Giant Network Technology Co. for $4.4 billion.

Major games studios have been attempting to expand their mobile offerings in an increasingly competitive, but lucrative, market. Supercell Oy, the maker of mobile games Clash of Clans and Hay Day, posted revenue of just over $2 billion in 2017, despite lacking a global launch of a new game.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Chitra Somayaji

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