Investment giant Carlyle Group has sold RuneScape maker Jagex to CVC and Haveli Investments.
In a post on CVC's website, it wrote that the two financial outfits had bought the games studio though no official figure has been placed on the deal. Rumours prior to the acquisition officially being announced said that Jagex was being bought for £900 million ($1.1 billion).
This news comes three years after private equity giant Carlyle Group acquired the RuneScape firm for north of $530 million.
CVC and Haveli Investments are Jagex's fifth owners in the last ten years. The former is a massive private equity firm – and appears to be new to games – while the latter has worked in the sector before, having previously backed the likes of Behaviour Interactive and Omeda.
“Jagex has transformed significantly in recent years thanks to the hard work of our entire team as well as the insight and expertise we have leveraged through our partnership with Carlyle," Jagex boss Phil Mansell (pictured) said.
"We are delighted to bring CVC and Haveli in as our new strategic partners for the next stage of Jagex’s journey. Through our successful partnership with Carlyle we have already seen the benefits of working with experienced, global financial sponsors. The video gaming sector has huge potential, and with CVC and Haveli’s support, I am confident that we can continue to enhance our platform for the good of both our existing valued gamers and potential new gamers yet to experience our products.”
Nick Clarry, managing partner and head of CVC’s Sports, Media and Entertainment team, added: “CVC has followed the video games space for many years with great interest. We are huge fans of the RuneScape games, the large global community of players, and the Games-as-a-Service capability at Jagex. Our ambition is to bring relevant experience from our sports, media & entertainment assets to help realise the full potential of Jagex over the years ahead. This will involve continuing to improve the existing RuneScape games, the accessibility to games on various platforms, and reinvesting into new IP content to create the exciting games of tomorrow.”
Finally, Haveli chief investment officer Brian Sheth, said: “We, along with CVC, are thrilled to partner with Jagex, a premier player in gaming. We have been following Jagex closely since we first began implementing our gaming investment strategy, and we believe it is among the most innovative and creative companies across gaming with a large and loyal player base, operating in an attractive, growing market where they’ve been a leader for more than two decades. We are excited to work with Phil and the Jagex team, along with CVC, to take its flagship franchise RuneScape to the next level.”
Disclaimer: Alex Calvin is a freelance writer who has worked with Jagex in the past.
