Take-Two and Zynga merge in videogame's biggest ever acquisition

Take-Two and Zynga have merged in the bigger ever deal completed in the video game industry, as per Video Games Chronicle.

The owner of Rockstar, Take-Two, revealed at the turn of the year that it had put in motion plans to buy Zynga.

That deal was set to cost $12.7 billion, which equates to £10.1 billion.

It is a gigantic deal and was approved by stockholders of both Take-Two and Zynga last week.

The previous most expensive deal saw Chinese game developers Tencent pay $8.6 billion to acquire Supercell, a Finnish mobile game studio.

Take-Two have now merged directly with a hugely successful mobile games publisher, with Zynga previously publishing games such as FarmVille and Words With Friends, which remain immensely popular.

Take-Two, of course, have Grand Theft Auto under their umbrella, along with the likes of the NBA and WWE sporting franchises, and BioShock.

This deal appears set to see Take-Two explore the possibility of bringing a number of their franchises to mobile, while also potentially developing new IPs that can be published to phone storefronts.

Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s CEO, said of the merger: “We are thrilled to complete our combination with Zynga, which is a pivotal step to increase exponentially our net bookings from mobile, the fastest-growing segment in interactive entertainment, while also providing us with substantial cost synergies and revenue opportunities.

“As we bring together our exceptional talent, exciting pipelines of games, and industry-leading technologies and capabilities, we believe that we can take our portfolio to another level of creativity, innovation, and quality.”

Frank Gibeau, Zynga’s CEO, also said: “We are excited for Zynga’s next-generation mobile platform, free-to-play