US video game rental and subscription service GameFly Inc. is acquiring Israeli cloud gaming platform company Playcast Media Systems Ltd. No financuial details about the acquisition were disclosed although Playcast has raised $19 million since it was founded by Guy De Beer in 2007.
Playcast has 35 employees at its off ices in San Francisco and in Israel and GameFly says that following the acquisition, it will be expanding Playcast’s R&D center in Caesarea. GameFly will also introduce Playcast's video game streaming service.
Playcast's Israeli investors include Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Mer Group and Xenia Venture Capital Ltd. (TASE:XENA) as well as MK Capital.
Gadi Tirosh from JVP and Bret Maxwell from MK Capital will join the GameFly Board of Directors. “GameFly is the perfect company to join forces with and bring our game streaming technology to gamers around the world,” said Gadi Tirosh, Managing Partner at JVP and a Playcast Director. “They are the leaders in video game subscription services and bring an established brand, strong publisher relationships and financial resources.”
GameFly’s acquisition of Playcast coincides with dramatic growth in media streaming and pairs GameFly’s expertise delivering consumer game rental and subscription services with Playcast’s state of the art technology to create the world’s premier multi-platform, console-quality streaming video game service.
Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz who is also a GameFly director said, “The $25 billion video game industry is undergoing major disruption and consumers have expressed strong interest in streaming games, much as they do with TV and movies. GameFly’s introduction of its new streaming video game service should help accelerate the growth of this market considerably.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 2, 2015
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