China’s social media and gaming giant Tencent is bidding to buy control of Funcom, developer of the “Conan” and “Dune” games. The bid values the Norwegian company at $148 million.
Tencent already owns 29% of Funcom, and its bid has been unanimously approved by Funcom’s board of directors. No management changes are planned.
The shares of Funcom are listed on the stock exchange in Oslo. Tencent’s bid of NOK17 per share is approximately 27% higher than the stock’s closing price on Tuesday, before the bid was announced.
“We have had a great relationship with Tencent as our largest shareholder so far and we are excited about this opportunity,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais in a statement published on its website. “We will continue to develop great games that people all over the world will play, and we believe that the support of Tencent will take Funcom to the next level. Tencent will provide Funcom with operational leverage and insights from its vast knowledge as the leading company in the game space.”
Listed in Hong Kong, and with a market capitalization of $473 billion (HK$3.68 trillion), Tencent is a shareholder in many leading gaming developers. It has stakes in companies including Riot Games, Epic, Supercell, Ubisoft, Paradox and Frontier.
