Four months ago free-to-play gaming group LEAF Mobile announced that they were acquiring Vancouver’s East Side Games.
East Side Games (ESG) is a leading publisher and developer of mobile games. Founded in 2011 by game industry veterans, it has created chart topping hits for top Hollywood brands as well as Canadian superstars The Trailer Park Boys.
According to October’s reverse takeover announcement, LEAF would acquire ESG for $150 million, the payment of which will be comprised of $50 million in cash, and that number of LEAF common shares that will represent 50% of the issued and outstanding LEAF shares on closing.
Completion of the acquisition was conditional upon LEAF obtaining approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange to list the LEAF shares for trading on that exchange.
The transaction has been finalized and Canada’s largest publicly-traded mobile games company, LEAF Mobile (TSX:LEAF), began trading on the TSX last week.
“It’s LEAF’s ambition to be a world-class free-to-play mobile game group, both through our studio’s highly engaging games and our commitment to bettering the mobile games industry,” says Darcy Taylor, CEO of LEAF Mobile. “We’re excited to welcome East Side Games to the team, a studio that both produces top tier mobile experiences and has been paving the way for a more equitable industry for over a decade”.
Vancouver’s ESG joined Nanaimo game developer LDRLY (pronounced “Leaderly”) in the LEAF family.
The acquisition of ESG is part of an overall strategy by LEAF to combine diverse groups of mobile game studios / entrepreneurs that share a common set of beliefs on creating positive impact in the mobile games industry.
Both ESG and LDRLY ranked seventh and sixth respectively in App Annie’s Level Up Top Publisher Awards 2021 for top 10 publishers based in Canada by worldwide revenue, and ESG was recently recognized on the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2020 list compiled by Pocket Gamer Biz.
“The team at East Side Games is extremely excited to take this massive next step in our journey. By amalgamating our assets and talent with LEAF Mobile, we become one of, if not the leading, publicly traded mobile game company in Canada,” said Jason Bailey, cofounder of ESG and recently appointed Chief Revenue Officer of LEAF Mobile.
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