Kolibri Games acquired by Ubisoft

Taylor Wessing has advised Kolibri Games, one of the premier developers of mobile free-to-play games and one of the leaders of the “idle” games genre, on its 75% acquisition by Ubisoft.

Kolibri Games, based in Berlin, develops and publishes Idle Miner Tycoon, which has been downloaded by more than 104 million players worldwide since releasing in 2016.

The studio, with a talented team of around 100, has grown the game with more than 160 content updates since its launch, and will bring its lauded know-how in mobile games development and live services to Ubisoft.

The acquisition was completed on January 31 and is expected to be accretive to Ubisoft’s earnings. The agreement gives Ubisoft the option of gradually raising its stake in Kolibri Games to 100% over the next four years.

Commenting on the deal, Mike Turner, Corporate Technology Partner at Taylor Wessing and deal lead said: “Kolibri Games makes exceptional, high quality games that have large market appeal. It is almost a no-brainer that Ubisoft wanted to incorporate Kolibri Games' portfolio into its own business. This was a very exciting deal to work on as it hits our sweet spot, leveraging our specialist knowledge of the mobile gaming space. It also allowed us to flex our international muscle, requiring skills and expertise from across both the United Kingdom and Germany."

Daniel Stammler, Co-CEO and co-founder of Kolibri Games said: “Becoming part of Ubisoft will open a new chapter for us. We develop games which have a strong reputation in market, and Ubisoft is a creative powerhouse and one of the strongest brands in the games industry. Mike and his team at Taylor Wessing have done outstanding work on the transaction, a high point in the history of our young company, which will enable us to expand our development.”

The team was led by Mike Turner and associate Katie Kaplucha from Taylor Wessing's Corporate Technology team in the United Kingdom.

The team also consisted of partners Nico Jänicke (Employment), Bert Kimpel (Tax), Dr. Norman Röchert (Corporate), Gregor Schmid (Commercial Technology and Data), Dr. Ralf B. Tietz (Corporate) and Maria Weiers (Corporate) in Germany.

This deal is the latest in a long line of high profile M&A transactions in the games sector that Taylor Wessing has acted on. In 2018, Taylor Wessing advised

Wooga on its sale to Israeli mobile games company, Playtika Ltd (Playtika) and in 2017, the firm advised Altigi GmbH, holding company of the Hamburg-based game developer Goodgame Studios on its acquisition by the Swedish gaming company Stillfront Group for €270 million.