Swedish co Embrace buys Israel gaming co CrazyLabs

The acquisition of the Israeli mobile gaming company was made possible after a legal settlement between the three founders.

Swedish company Embrace Group has announced that it is acquiring Israeli mobile games publisher CrazyLabs. The deal includes shares and cash but precise financial details were not disclosed.

The acquisition is scheduled to close in the coming few months and CrazyLabs management will remain in place.

CrazyLabs develops and distributes hyper-casual and lifestyle mobile games and according to the acquisition announcement had the world's third largest number of mobile games downloads in 2020 - 4.5 billion downloads and over 110 million new active users. CrazyLabs had gross profit of $153 million between July 2020 and June 2021.

CrazyLabs was founded in 2010 as TabTale to focus on children's educational games but switched in recent years to mobile games. The company has offices in Israel, China, Northern Macedonia, Germany and Ukraine.

According to IVC, CrazyLabs received a $13.5 million investment in its early years from Magma, Vintage, and Qualcomm Ventures. The company has reportedly been profitable since 2012.

"Globes" reported last month that CrazyLabs was about to be sold after the founders resolved a protracted dispute between them. Under the terms of the settlement, which followed arbitration proceedings, CrazyLabs paid $20 million cash for the shares of one of its founders Oran Kushnir, who had a 21% stake in the company.

In 2017 Kushnir sued CrazyLabs' other two founders CEO Sagi Schliesser and CTO Nir Bejerano after he was fired as company president and VP and ousted from the board. The company countersued Kushnir for breach of trust and allegedly stealing business opportunities and IP for his new company GOE.

Kushnir is expected to receive an additional $14 million after the sale of CrazyLabs.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 5, 2021

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