Why did Riot sell to Tencent?

Perguntado por: amorgado . Última atualização: 29 de maio de 2023
4.1 / 5 20 votos

Riot didn't sell to Tencent (I suspect) because they wanted to cash out or needed Tencent's money. They sold because they needed Tencent's legal access to the Chinese market. China makes it very difficult for a random American company to sell stuff over there.

2011

In 2011, Riot Games was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Tencent. Riot Games' publishing arm, Riot Forge, oversees the production of League of Legends spin-offs by other developers. The company worked with Fortiche to release Arcane, a television series based on the League of Legends universe.

According to Riot, it decided to terminate its partnership with Garena to cater to more players worldwide. “With Riot's growth and expansion into a multi-game studio, we are continuing to focus on serving more players around the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific regions.

In December of 2020, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Riot Games for an estimated $7.5 billion. As part of the deal, Microsoft acquired the full ownership of Riot Games and its subsidiaries. The acquisition was seen as a major move for Microsoft, as it solidifies its position in the gaming industry.

The case was due to copyright infringement, with Riot Games claiming that Moonton copied parts of Riot Games' League of Legends and Wild Rift titles. Some examples provided include similarities between both games' title artwork and characters.

To develop Discord, Hammer & Chisel gained additional funding from YouWeb's 9+ incubator, which had also funded the startup of Hammer & Chisel, and from Benchmark capital and Tencent.

USD$400 million

Tencent, a Chinese multinational conglomerate, bought a majority share in Riot Games in 2011 for USD$400 million for a few reasons. Firstly, Riot Games was the developer of the popular online game "League of Legends," which had a large and growing player base in China and around the world.

Investments in tech companies like Tesla, Riot, Epic Games, Supercell, Reddit, and Discord only add to its strength. But Tencent's path to success has not been without controversy. Critics accuse the company of using unethical tactics such as anticompetitive and human rights violations to get to the top.

Tech giant Tencent was told to stop releasing new apps and updates last week. State authorities said Tencent's products had violated regulations and launched an inspection. Inspections are expected to last until the end of 2021, but current versions of Tencent's apps still work.

Riot Games, the League of Legends developer and publisher, is 100% owned by Tencent, a Chinese technology and entertainment conglomerate of colossal size.

In 2016, the company was bought out by Chinese conglomerate Tencent holdings, taking an 81.4% stake in the company valued at €8.4 billion.

Beginning January 2023, LoL Garena accounts will be deactivated. However, players will be asked to migrate to Riot accounts starting 18 November to ensure a smooth transfer. Players can use the Riot multigame client to play LoL and TFT, downloadable from www.riotgames.com.

With Riot's growth and expansion into a multi-game studio, we are continuing to focus on serving more players around the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific regions. With that in mind, we've decided to end our partnership with Garena and self-publish our games across Asia-Pacific.

Riot Games announced that their partnership with Garena would come to an end in 2022. Players were asked to migrate their account as soon as possible to ensure that the transition would go smoothly. As of January 6th, 2023, the Garena SEA servers have been officially shut down and the new Riot SEA servers are now live.

Activision Blizzard's brand is ranked #527 in the list of Global Top 1000 Brands, as rated by customers of Activision Blizzard. Their current market cap is $74.97B. Riot Games's brand is ranked #77 in the list of Global Top 100 Brands, as rated by customers of Riot Games. Their current valuation is $3.52B.

Riot Games's revenue is $1.5 billion.
Zippia's data science team found the following key financial metrics about Riot Games after extensive research and analysis. Riot Games has 2,500 employees, and the revenue per employee ratio is $600,000. Riot Games peak revenue was $1.5B in 2022.

Tencent Holdings

Riot Games is a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, a Chinese multinational conglomerate. Tencent acquired a majority stake in Riot Games in 2011 and later completed the acquisition, owning 100% of the company in December 2015.

The design of Mara was allegedly copied from Haugen's Cade Janus. Activision, Infinity Ward, and Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) have all been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit that claims the companies were responsible for making a direct copy of a character for use in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.