Sony Hires Financial Advisor to Consider Bid to Buy Leyou, Owner of Warframe
Sony reportedly hired financial advisors to consider purchasing Hong Kong based gaming company which owns the following gaming studios:
- Digital Extremes: Warframe
- Splash Damage: Halo: Master Chief Collection and Gears Tactics
- Athlon Games: Studio developing a new Lord of the Rings MMO with Amazon Games
- Kingmaker: F2P Game publisher in China
- Radiance Games: Developer behind Civilization Online
Leyou is currently worth ~$1.1B, but will likely sell for a premium to this price if a deal is reached. Sony seems to be competing with 2 rival Chinese bidders Zhejiang Century Huatong Group (Shanda Games) and iDreamSky (Tencent backed gaming company).
Given Warframe's continued success in the West, $1.1B seems pretty cheap for such a top tier game. But then again, Jagex was purchased for only $530 Million earlier this year. Given that 3 companies are pursuing Leyou, I suspect a deal will get done soon.
From a player's perspective, regardless of who ends up winning the bidding war for Leyou, not much should change, as nothing changed when Digital Extremes was first purchased by Leyou in 2016.
Further Reading: Bloomberg News: Sony Weighs Bid for Hong Kong-Listed Gaming Firm Leyou