The gaming industry has already set a record for the number of deals in a year
In just the first five months alone, 2021 has brought over $49 billion in deals across 527 investments, public offerings and acquisitions. The industry is now on pace to reach or break $100 billion in deals, for the year.
According to investment bank, Drake Star Partners, between January and May, companies announced 142 deals valued at $21 billion, three SPAC’s raised $4.2 billion, with private game companies raising $4.2 billion across 314 financing deals from VC and private strategic investors. There was $5.4 billion raised in 23 IPO’s with $14.2 billion raised in secondary offerings and/or debt financings.
Michael Metzger, partner at Drake Star, said in an email to GamesBeat “the rapid consolidation, financings and IPOs make sense, and I don’t see it slowing down… It’s a reflection of how the public capital market sees the gaming sector. It’s the largest segment within media and continues to show strong growth. Many companies in the space are highly profitable, and the sector has proven to be resilient to downturns.”
2021 will continue to see large amounts of investment capital infused into the gaming industry. Giants like Tencent, c Byte Dance, Microsoft, Zynga, Stillfront and EA are making big investments and acquisitions in the space.
Investors in smaller companies with unique or patented technologies could stand to be the biggest winners as potential bidding wars boost the valuations of everything from startups to fully developed publishers.
Read more about the record-breaking pace for game deals, HERE
SOURCE: Drake Star Partners: Game deals have reached a record $49B in 2021 | VentureBeat