Tencent gains majority stake of mobile developer Supercell

Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate Tencent has acquired a majority stake in Supercell through a roundabout manner. The multinational bought an additional 44,000 shares in a consortium through a $40 million convertible bond, according to a CX Tech report. Tencent joined the Luxembourg company Halti S.A. in June 2016  with the sole purpose of acquiring Supercell. It indirectly owns an 81.4% stake in the Finnish developer and is now a Tencent subsidiary. Tencent’s recent share acquisition increased its stale in the consortium from 50% to 51.2%

Supercell has created three very successful mobile games that are also doing quite well as esports titles. The Clash of Clans World Championship features a $1 million prize pool and will take place this weekend at ESL One Hamburg. Next month, Brawl Stars World Championship will take place in South Korea with a $250,000 prize pool and Clash Royale League World Final will take place sometime before the year ends.

Tencent has been gobbling up as much of the gaming and esports market as it can get its hands on. The conglomerate presently owns all of Riot Games, 40% of Epic Games and small stakes in Activision Blizzard, Bluehole and Ubisoft.