Social gaming provider PlayStudios announced Monday it was merging with Acies Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company led by former MGM Resorts Chairman and CEO Jim Murren in a deal that values the Las Vegas-based game developer at $1.1 billion.
PlayStudios, which was founded in 2011 by longtime gaming executive Andrew Pascal, offers free-to-play casual games on mobile and social gaming sites through its myVegas platform.
Through the transaction, which includes several institutional investors providing a private investment in public equity (PIPE) of $250 million, PlayStudios will emerge as a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq.
PlayStudios CEO Andrew Pascal
PlayStudios shareholders will own 64% of the company and the PIPE participants will own 18%. Acies sponsors will own 3%, and 15% of the company will be available on the open market.
The transaction’s valuation of $1.1 billion is based on two-and-a-half-times PlayStudios’ projected 2022 revenue of $435 million, or 12.3-times its project cash flow of $90 million. The deal for PlayStudios comprises 89.1 million shares of Acies common stock and up to $150 million in cash.
The $250 million PIPE will become $10 per share of common stock in Acies immediately prior to the transaction closing, which is expected in the second quarter.
Jim Murren, chairman of Acies Acquisition
Pascal will continue to lead the combined company along with the current management team. Pascal will also remain a significant equity participant in the company, according to a statement.
Pascal said the move to becoming a public company – the first for a mobile games company that offers players real-world rewards – will allow PlayStudios to accelerate its growth to launch new products and fund acquisitions.
“From our inception, we set out to create wonderfully compelling games that were free-to-play and offered real-world rewards,” Pascal said. “We’ve now demonstrated the positive, long-term impact of this value proposition with our current portfolio of apps, and we’re poised to carry that success into new products and new game genres.”
PlayStudios has the exclusive social gaming and mobile rights for Las Vegas casino resort properties operated by MGM Resorts. The casino company is also part of the institutional investors providing money through the SPAC. Others participating in the PIPE are funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, ClearBridge Investments, and Neuberger Berman Funds.
Murren, who retired from MGM Resorts last year, formed Acies with co-CEOs Dan Fetters and Edward King, who are former managing directors at Morgan Stanley.
“Within today’s vast and growing games market, PlayStudios is unique in offering their audience the opportunity to play for fun and earn for real,” Murren said in a statement. “They know how to make engaging and enduring games and stand apart in having harnessed the power of a robust and full-featured loyalty program.”
PlayStudios loyalty program – playAwards – allows players to earn rewards from a collection of more than 80 partners and 275 entertainment, retail, travel, leisure, and gaming brands. To date, PlayStudios used have collected in-app loyalty points to purchase more than 10 million rewards with a retail value of nearly $500 million.
PlayStudios has offices and design studios in Burlingame, California; Las Vegas; Austin, Texas; Hong Kong; and Tel Aviv, Israel.
Pascal has developed several gaming companies, including WagerWorks and Silicon Gaming. He also served as president of Wynn Resorts’ two Las Vegas properties, Wynn Las Vegas and Encore before founding PlayStudios.
Last year, Pascal and members of his PlayStudios team collaborated in the development of COVID Trace, a digital contact tracing app designed to slow the spread of coronavirus. COVID Trace is positioned to become the most effective exposure notification solution in the U.S. and a model for other states working to control the spread of the virus.
Upping its presence
PlayStudios upped its presence and messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic when stay at home orders were issued. The company launched an advertising campaign in Las Vegas and Denver dubbed In Is The New Out, which followed a young couple practicing social distancing at home and includes them playing the myVegas slot games for entertainment.
Pascal said at the time the partnership with MGM Resorts allowed the company’s customers to play slot and table games in a virtual Las Vegas setting. With casinos closed, the games on myVegas, including myVegas Blackjack, offered MGM Resorts a way to maintain its presence with customers.
“From the beginning, we envisioned myVegas as an entertainment product that also served to drive tourism to Las Vegas,” Pascal said last April. “It’s a very unique approach to promoting the city, and with the awards offered by our partners, we’re able to take players who may have never planned to visit Las Vegas and turn them into repeat visitors.”
PlayStudios struck a partnership with Konami Gaming for KonamiSlots. In 2016, PlayStudios acquired Tel Aviv-based game studio Scene53 and launched its Pop! Slots mobile app.
Competition
In 2019, slot machine developer Scientific Games spun off its social game division into SciPlay, a separate public company. The Las Vegas-based gaming equipment provider maintained a 17% ownership stake in the new company.
In January, Israel-based Playtika, developer of mobile games including many social casino titles such as Slotomania and WSOP, announced an initial public offering that could help it raise $1.67 billion.
In 2016, a group of Chinese investors including Giant Network Group Co Ltd. and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm founded by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, acquired Playtika from Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $4.4 billion.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
