Page 68 - TURKRptJul20

9.2.4​ TMT corporate news
Turkey Wealth Fund (TVF) ​confirmed​ on June 18 that it is to take over Swedish Telia’s 24.02% indirect stake in largest Turkish mobile operator Turkcell for $530mn in cash. Analysts saw the price as low.
Zynga will ​acquire​ a popular lineup of puzzle games called Toon Blast and Toy Blast via the Peak Games deal​.
The company will pay Peak’s owners 114 million shares priced at $7.92, the volume-weighted average closing over the past 30 trading days, Bloomberg said. Zynga will have $600mn in cash on its balance sheet after the deal, CEO Frank Gibeau said in an interview with the news agency.
At $1.8bn, the Peak purchase eclipses earlier transactions, including the 2018 deal to buy the majority stake in Finland’s Small Giant Games for $560mn.
“Peak is an amazing founder success story ‘Made in Istanbul’ and the first Turkish unicorn exit,” said Roland Manger, co-founder and partner of Earlybird Venture Capital, one of Peak’s backers.
The acquisition is expected to boost the number of average users playing Zynga’s games daily by more than 60% by expanding its international audience, Gibeau was quoted as saying.
“If you think about where Zynga is positioned right now, you could argue that this is a transformational deal for us,” Gibeau added. “It’ll basically add a third to our live-operations revenues and bookings.”
Zynga management first met Peak’s co-founder and CEO Sidar Sahin in 2017,
68​ TURKEY Country Report​ July 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com