Kabam Divests Classic Mobile Games and Publishing Business to GAEA

Company Continues Focus on Top 10 Hits; GAEA Acquires “Treasure Trove” of Kabam Content

SAN FRANCISCO--()--Kabam, Inc., creator of massively multi-player mobile games for a global audience, today announced it has divested its first generation mobile and third party published games to GAEA Mobile, an emerging interactive entertainment and mobile game company based in Beijing. The acquisition reflects Kabam’s exclusive focus on developing top performing mobile games for players around the world.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

By mid-2016 Kabam will transfer to GAEA operational responsibility for several high profile Kabam titles, including Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon, as well as a number of games in Kabam’s third-party publishing business. With these games comes a large fan base that GAEA will merge into its own worldwide community of gamers playing hits such as Ace of Arenas. The companies expect no changes in player accounts or progress, as they are committed to a seamless transfer.

Kabam will continue to operate its global hits Marvel Contest of Champions, Star WarsTM: Uprising, Fast & Furious: Legacy and Spirit Lords. Kabam also will continue to develop new original games and games based on some of the world’s most popular movie franchises.

“Kabam continues to pare its business to concentrate on creating and operating the highest quality mobile games that will be long-lasting global hits,” said Kabam Chief Operating Officer Kent Wakeford. “Millions of people still play our legacy mobile games and games by third-party partners. We wanted to find the right home for this treasure trove of entertainment. GAEA proves to be that trusted company.”

“GAEA Mobile’s transaction with Kabam is an essential piece in our ‘Global Development, Global Publishing’ strategy blueprint,” said GAEA Chief Operating Officer Glevis Yang. “We are continuously in search of international games and talents to become part of our expertise in creating games that can be enjoyed by gamers of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. We look forward to bringing exciting new titles to the gaming community.”

Kabam started as a developer of strategy games on Facebook in September 2009 and quickly moved to mobile in 2011. Its first mobile title, Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, was the top grossing app on iOS in 2012. Three of Kabam’s mobile games transferring to GAEA have grossed more than $100 million and remain successful games in the market.

Kabam introduced its focus on developing fewer, bigger and bolder games in April 2015 when CEO Kevin Chou announced a global restructuring. This included divesting Kabam’s award-winning Facebook games to RockYou, which Kabam had announced earlier. Chou and Wakeford have elaborated on Kabam’s strategy to be singularly focused on big hits during interviews and at industry conferences in the U.S. and China.

Marvel Contest of Champions, Kabam’s hit action-fighting game, exemplifies the evolution of the company’s strategy to focus on global hits. The game surpassed $100 million in revenue in seven months and continues to grow in popularity. All four of the games Kabam launched since 2014 were named Editors’ Choice by the app stores around the world.

With a $1 billion valuation and profitable since 2012, Kabam is one of the top mobile gaming companies in the industry. Five Kabam games have grossed more than $100 million each in less than four years.

Established in September 2014 in Beijing, GAEA has become one of the fastest growing interactive companies, valued at about $800 million and published multiple titles worldwide in its first year. Dedicated to core gameplay innovation, GAEA made the global mobile MOBA hit Ace of Arenas with more than 30,000,000 players in its first 10 months. GAEA will launch several new titles and in-game content based on globally famous franchises, TV shows and movies.

About Kabam

Kabam, Inc. (“Kabam”) creates, develops, and publishes massively multi-player games that are available to a global audience on mobile devices via its own dedicated channel in the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon Appstore. The company is valued at more than $1 billion and has been profitable since 2012. Kabam has created five titles that have grossed more than $100 million each in their life. In 2014, Kabam had three titles rank in the Top 50 Grossing apps on the App Store. Kabam has more than 800 employees around the world, with corporate headquarters in San Francisco. The company's investors include Alibaba, Canaan Partners, Google, MGM, Intel, Pinnacle Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Warner Bros. and others. More information about Kabam can be found at www.kabam.com.

Contacts

Kabam, Inc.
Joanne Sibug, 415-391-0817
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
jsibug@kabam.com

Contacts

Kabam, Inc.
Joanne Sibug, 415-391-0817
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
jsibug@kabam.com