Nazara Technologies plans to obtain 28.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia

By siliconindia  |  Monday, 27 May 2024, 12:58 IST

Nazara Technologies plans to obtain 28.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia
The Mumbai based gaming and entertainment major Nazara Technologies plans to acquire remaining 28.12% stake in its mobile gaming subsidiary, Nextwave Multimedia, in two tranches for 21.63 crore from founder shareholders PR Rajendran, R Kalpana, and PR Jayashree.
In the first tranche, the company has decided to purchase 1,000 shares and acquire 3% of the stake in Nextwave Multimedia, for 2.3 crore in cash, and in the second tranche, it will buy 8,375 shares, representing a 25.12% stake, for 19.33 crore in cash by the issuance of Nazara Technologies stock within six months after the first tranche closes.
Nazara Technologies first acquired a majority stake in Nextwave Multimedia in 2018 and increased its ownership to 71.88% in May 2023. After completing the transaction Nazara said it will consider merging the entity and/or its IP into the parent company, Nazara Technologies Ltd. 
They will apply the same tactics for other existing games and new acquisitions. This new approach involves merging that core gaming IPs into the parent listed entity which will be able to extract synergies and capture cash flows directly at the parent level.
Nextwave Multimedia was founded in 1995, which was the sole developer behind the World Cricket Championship (WCC) franchise. The company primarily focuses on developing casual and multiplayer mobile games within the sports genre. 
During last year, Nazara has appointed Christopher Franklin as CEO who was succeeded by the founder Rajendran. Later took over the post of board chairman. The Mumbai-based company mentioned that, over the past year, the former CEO and founder facilitated a smooth transition, sharing knowledge and expertise associated with the WCC franchise.
Around May 25th, the company claimed to revamp Nextwave Multimedia’s ad monetization, live operations, brand sales, and user acquisition strategies. These upgradations will help them to enhance retention and revenue generation for the core WCC franchise in fiscal year 2025.
The company claims that the WCC titles have amassed over 100 million downloads across mobile platforms in the last seven years, attracting approximately 8.1 million monthly active users, predominantly from India, as of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024.
Nazara has planned to leverage the studio’s expertise to expand the WCC franchise further across platforms and to unveil  new games, with the first launch anticipated in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.
 

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