SoftBank's Acquisition of Supercell Stake Positive for Both Parties, to Create New Leader in the Mobile Game Industry, Says Frost & Sullivan

SoftBank's Acquisition of Supercell StakeSoftBank's Acquisition of Supercell Stake Positive for Both Parties, to Create New Leader in the Mobile Game Industry, Says Frost & Sullivan PR Newswire TOKYO, Oct. 17, 2013 Frost & Sullivan believes that the recent announcement of SoftBank's acquisition of 51% of Finnish gaming company Supercell for US$1.5bn is a very positive market development for both parties, as the combination of the two companies will create a new market leader in the cutthroat US$12.5bn industry which should increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1 per cent (2013-2018) to reach US$30.1bn in 2018. Mr. Marc Einstein, Industry Principal, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan said that the acquisition of the Supercell stake combined with SoftBank subsidiary GungHo Online Entertainment creates a very unique company with a distinct competitive edge. "The global game industry is quite divided as Japanese developers tend to be dominant in the domestic market and weak outside of Japan while non- Japanese developers are weak in Japan and strong elsewhere. This started to change when Supercell and GungHo started cross promoting each other's products in mid-2013, but now for the first time we have a company that is extremely popular in Western markets coupled with another company that is extremely popular in Japan." Mr.