Israeli company Playtika has bought Israeli start-up Big Blue Parrot, which develops social games for mobile. The value of the deal has not been disclosed, but sources inform "Globes" that is amounts to about $10 million. The deal was completed a few weeks ago, and last week, the start-up's nine employees moved into Playtika's offices in Tel Aviv.
This is the fifth acquisition by Playtika, and its second of an Israeli company, after buying games company Pacific Interactive in February last year for $90 million.
Big Blue Parrot was founded in 2010 by Gilad Almog, Gal Weizenberg and Daniel Rechter. The company is behind the game Poker Friends, which, according to SimilarWeb data, is a among the 50 most popular free casino games on iOS in the US and major European countries.
Big Blue Parrot raised $2.5 million from Gigi Levy, Rami Lipman, Haim Blecher, and iAngels, so that the investors should post a good return, even though the company is being sold for a comparatively low price.
It seems that Playtika did not buy Big Blue Parrot because of the game of luck that it developed, but because of its workforce, making it an acqui-hire deal.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 7, 2015
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