Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games to acquire Scopely for $4.9B

Gaming and e-sports company Savvy Games Group—owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF)—will be acquiring mobile gaming company Scopely at a deal value of $4.9 billion.

JP Morgan acted as the lead financial advisor to Savvy on the transaction, alongside Bank of America and Aream; Latham and Watkins acted as legal adviser. For Scopely, Goldman Sachs acted as financial adviser; Skadden, Arps, Slate, and Meagher and Flom acted as transaction counsel; and Goodwin Procter acted as corporate counsel.

A report in TechCrunch stated that the acquisition will strengthen Savvy's global position and also help enable Scopely to accelerate its growth and achievement towards this strategic objective.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Scopely is a maker of the games including "Star Trek Fleet Command," "Looney Tunes World of Mayhem," "Yahtzee with Buddies", and others. The company will operate autonomously under the Savvy umbrella.

The company was founded in 2011 in Los Angeles and was valued at $3.3 billion in 2020 when it had raised $340 million. The valuation jumped to $5.4 billion after it acquired GSN Games from Sony at $1 billion in 2021. The Los Angeles-based company will be led by both Walter Driver and Javier Ferreira.

Savvy Games is led by Brian Ward, who had previously worked at Microsoft Games Studio and Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard.

He said in a note that the Scopely team has now become a part of Savvy Games and will continue to build a diversified mobile-first games company.

Some of the investors in Scopely include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Greycroft, Highland Capital Partners, and Wellington Management.