Tripledot Studios, one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile game developers, said it acquired U.S.-based AppLovin’s mobile games studio portfolio for approximately $800 million.
This is a defining milestone in Tripledot’s journey as a company – as they go from being a high-performing challenger to a big global leader in mobile gaming. When the deal closes, Tripledot will have 12 studios globally across 23 cities and more than 2,500 team members serving 25 million daily active users and bringing in annual gross revenues of nearly $2 billion.
This acquisition establishes Tripledot as a top five independent mobile gaming company by revenue globally and reaffirms Europe’s leading role in the mobile gaming space, following in the footsteps of the early successful mobile gaming companies like Rovio, Supercell and King.
The half cash, half equity deal will see AppLovin become a minority shareholder in Tripledot Studios while allowing Tripledot to expand its footprint in key strategic markets, including the U.S. and Asia.
Founded in London in 2017 by gaming industry veterans Lior Shiff, Akin Babayigit and Eyal Chameides, Tripledot Studios is one of the world’s largest casual games developers. Tripledot Studios has developed and operates over 25 live games, including hit titles like Woodoku, Solitaire.com, Nut Sort and Triple Tile, and has been profitable from its second year of operation. In 2023 Tripledot was named as the fastest growing company in Europe by the Financial Times.
“Creating and operating games is our passion,” said Lior Shiff, CEO of Tripledot Studios, in a statement. “Our mission is to become the world’s most successful mobile game studio. Acquiring AppLovin’s games portfolio is a big step towards achieving that goal – taking us from being a high-performing challenger to a true global leader. It gives us additional scale, diversification and access to the best talent globally. We’re thrilled to welcome these incredible teams to Tripledot.”
Tripledot Studios’ strategy
This acquisition brings three key strategic advantages that will set Tripledot Studios apart in the global mobile gaming industry:
Game Portfolio Diversification and Shared Expertise: Tripledot is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile gaming studios, with no single game generating more than 10% of the total net revenue once this acquisition is complete. Partnering with AppLovin’s mobile games studio portfolio makes Tripledot the largest European mobile gaming company with expertise in both in-app purchase and in-app advertising business models. This enables Tripledot to create games for a much larger global audience and leverage best-in-class practices across marketing, product, AI and monetization
Access to a Global Talent Pool: Tripledot’s global footprint and expanded capabilities create an opportunity to leverage highly specialized experts across product, tech, marketing and art in a wider range of global geographies and creating better player experiences for tens of millions of people every day
Instant Scale: Pending regulatory approval and closing of the deal, this acquisition will make Tripledot Studios one of the largest mobile developers and publishers globally and will supercharge its already comprehensive data science and AI capabilities delivering a better experience for our players
Adam Foroughi, CEO of AppLovin, said in a statement, “Seven years ago, we began acquiring gaming studios to help train our earliest machine learning models. However, we’ve never been a game developer at heart. We have immense respect for the creativity it takes to build games, including from teams in our studios.”
Foroughi added, “Today, we’re announcing we’ve finalized a deal to sell all of our Apps business to Tripledot Studios. I have watched Lior build his company from the ground up and I have immense respect for his and the Tripledot team’s ability to run a games company. Lior and his team are some of the best operators in the business and give me incredible confidence they are the right partner to help these studios thrive going forward.”
Tripledot Studios currently has offices in London, Warsaw, Minsk, Barcelona, Jakarta and Melbourne. They will be acquiring the following 10 studios and popular titles in an additional 17 cities across the North America, Europe and Asia:
Lion Studios – makers of Hexa Sort, Wordle! and Found It
PeopleFun – makers of Wordscapes, Wordscapes Solitaire and Bricks n Balls
Belka Games – makers of Clockmaker and Train of Hope
Zenlife Games – makers of Cooking Madness and Word Connect
Leyi – makers of West Game and Mecha Fire
Magic Tavern – makers of Project Makeover, Matchington Mansion and Modern Community
Athena Studio – makers of Woody Block Puzzle and Woody 99
Clipwire Games – makers of The Price is Right Bingo, Bingo Story and Monopoly Bingo
Zeroo Gravity – makers of Cash Tornado, Jackpot Masters Slots and Carnival Tycoon
Machine Zone – makers of Mobile Strike and Game of War
The acquisition is expected to close by early summer 2025, pending regulatory approvals. Raine Group acted as the lead financial advisor, together with BofA Securities, and Latham & Watkins acted as the legal counsel for Tripledot Studios. Aream & Co acted as the financial advisor and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati acted as the legal counsel for AppLovin.
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