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Mail.ru Group acquires mobile games developer Pixonic for $30 mln

Pixonic was founded in 2009 and is best known for War Robots game

© Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. Mail.ru Group, one of the largest Internet companies in the Russian-speaking Internet market, has announced the acquisition of 100% of mobile games developer Pixonic for $30 mln, the company said in a press release.

The agreement was signed on 30 September 2016 with imminent completion in the next business days, according to the press release.

Pixonic was founded in 2009 and is best known for War Robots game. In September 2016 the game passed 20 mln installs just three months after its previous milestone of 15 mln installs. This is divided between 7 mln iOS players and 13 mln on Android.

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In 2015 Pixonic had revenues of $7.3 mln and in the first half of the company’s revenues totaled $9.9 mln.

"We are very pleased to be adding one of the world’s most talented teams of mobile games developers. There is a clear strategic fit here and we look forward to working together to strengthen our international mobile games development and publishing and take the company’s games to even further success," Mail.Ru Group Chairman and CEO (Russia), Dmitry Grishin said as quoted by the statement.

Earlier, Director of Mail.ru Group gaming department Alexander Kuzmenko told TASS that Russia is the country with a well-developed mobile market and the volume of the Russian market today is about $900 mln. A quarter of this amount falls on mobile games, which are gradually replacing the browser games and games on social networks, he noted. According to Kuzmenko, annually the market of mobile games is growing on average by more than 20%.

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