Caesars Interactive completes Pacific Interactive acquisition
Online arm of US casino group confirms House of Fun developer will be integrated into its social gaming business
Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) has confirmed its acquisition of House of Fun developer Pacific Interactive for an undisclosed fee.
The deal, exclusively revealed by eGR sister publication Social Casino Intelligence on Wednesday, will see Pacific Interactive and its entire workforce of more than 100 integrated into Caesars’ social casino business Playtika.
Playtika was acquired by CIE in 2011 for $103m and operates the market leading Slotomania game, along Buffalo Studios’ Bingo Blitz which was added to the group last year.
Launched in 2011, House of Fun is one of the leading social and mobile casino-themed games with a user base of 700,000 daily active users and 2,700,000 monthly active users.
While CIE has not disclosed the price it paid for Pacific Interactive, market research firm Eilers Research estimated the fee to be between US$60m-$90m, or approximately a multiple of two-to-three times revenues.
Playtika CEO Robert Antokol said the purchase of Pacific Interactive, which is its fourth major acquisition in the last four years, will significantly strengthen CIE’s social casino business.
“The acquisition allows us to offer a new quality product to our loyal user base and to attract new users,” he said. “We believe the talented team at Pacific Interactive not only brings with it a unique product, but will also be a strong addition to the group and add to our market leadership in the category.”
House of Fun was launched in 2011 and currently has a user base of 700,000 daily active users and 2.7m monthly active users across Facebook and mobile.
“We are excited to join one of the largest and most successful social and mobile games companies in the world,” added Omri Shitreet, the founder and CEO of Pacific Interactive. “We are confident that under the Playtika umbrella, we will be able to deliver an even better game experience for our players while at the same time creating great value for our new shareholders.”